ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday expressed grief over the death of former Australian spinner Shane Warne.
The prime minister, in a tweet, said that the late bowling genius, who took the art of leg-spinning to new heights, would be missed in the cricket world. “Saddened to learn of the sudden passing of cricketer Shane Warne, a bowling genius who took the art of leg-spin to new heights. He will be missed across the cricketing world,” he posted on his Twitter handle. Warne, one of cricket’s all-time greats, died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 in Koh Samui, Thailand, where he had been on holidays.
As one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Century, Warne had retired from the international cricket after claiming 293 wickets in ODIs and 708 wickets in Tests, the most by a leg-spinner in this format. Warne had made his Test debut against India in Sydney in 1992. He was also an ODI World Cup winner in 1999. “The game of cricket was never the same after Shane emerged, and it will never be the same now he has gone. Rest in peace King,” the Australian cricket said in a statement.
According to ESPN Criinfo, “Warnie”, as he was known throughout the cricketing world, was without question one of the true icons of world cricket, a man who almost singlehandedly revived the art of legspin in the early 1990s. “Although luminaries such as Pakistan’s Abdul Qadir had kept the art alive, Warne brought a new glamour and attacking intent to legspin, with his bottle-blond hair allied to a keen tactical brain that he used to outfox a host of unwitting opponents in his pomp.”
