Former Australian captain Michael Clarke paid a moving tribute to his close friend and one-time teammate Shane Warne.
Clarke began his Test career in the middle of Australia’s golden generation team. While not all his Test teammates took a liking to Clarke, Warne took an immediate shine to the young batter.
Warne coined the nickname ‘Pup’ for Clarke, and the pair became good mates away from the cricket field.
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“I haven’t said much over the weekend because I’ve been in complete shock. The hardest thing to comprehend is how quickly it’s happened,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio’s The Big Sports Breakfast.
“If Warnie had had liver cancer and passed from that, I think everyone would’ve understood, the amount of cigarettes he smoked throughout his time. The way he’s treated his body at certain times with diet and (he) didn’t mind a drink – he wasn’t a massive drinker, the drinking around Warnie was more perception versus reality.
“I spoke to him two days ago before he got on the plane (to Thaland). Spoke to him when he was here (in Sydney) for the T20s against Sri Lanka and nothing had changed.
“He sounded the same, acted the same. So to all of a sudden get a phone call at 1am to find out he’d had a heart attack, (I’m) just in complete shock. As it did with (Phillip Hughes), it takes me time to comprehend.”
Clarke was captaining Australia when another close friend of his, Phillip Hughes, tragically died after being hit in the head by a ball during a Sheffield Shield game.
With Warne, it wasn’t a freak accident that ended his life, but it was just as unexpected.
Clarke had a front-row seat to the rock star lifestyle Warne lived, which continued well into retirement.
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“He lived his life at such a fast pace that he nearly created this invincible feeling around him,” Clarke said.
“He was always on the go. You’d be (saying) ‘mate, you can’t do that’ or ‘you need to sleep’ or ‘how do you do that’. Everything was 24-7, like so fast – he started the car in fifth gear.
“Always tempting fate the whole time, you never thought it was possible (he could die), no way can you cut him down.
“I don’t think there’s too many things Shane didn’t experience. He got every minute out of every day. Sleeping was not his strength.”