Australian cricket icon Bill Lawry has joined the enormous line of people paying tribute to two legends of the game, as he spoke about the passing of both Rod Marsh and Shane Warne.
Included in Lawry’s reflections was a priceless story about Warne the gambler.
“They were both superstars,” Lawry said on 2GB’s Wide World of Sports radio.
“Marsh was probably the best wicketkeeper-batsman Australia’s ever produced, and Warne certainly the best slow bowler the world has ever seen.”
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Lawry praised his fellow Victorian as “an amazing person”.
“It didn’t matter if you were the dustman or the King of England; Warnie knew you, and got on well with you.”
“He’ll leave the same legacy in a different era.
“Bradman was a hero that everybody loved. Warne’s a modern hero, Warne’s an out-there guy, a knockaround guy, can mix with the rich and famous, and you just had to like him. He was just amazing.”
The former captain said he sat next to Warne on a flight to Adelaide once, with the spin king feverishly typing away on his laptop. Impressed by the work ethic, Lawry asked what Warne was working on.
“He said, ‘Oh, I’ve just been gambling with a guy in California, but unfortunately I lost’. And that was Shane Warne; he was just different.”
Lawry said it was also Warne’s uniqueness that gave him so much appeal.
“We’d never seen a bowler like him, we’d never seen a Test player with blond hair. He always looked to be overweight, he couldn’t run out of sight on a dark night, but he just had such a strong body and a great cricketing brain. It put him ahead of the rest,” Lawry said.
The 85-year-old played 67 Tests for Australia and captained his country 25 times, and then shared the commentary booth with Warne for many years after the latter’s retirement.
“It’d be Tony Greig and I, right on the dot of five to nine, ready to go, and Warnie would say the night before, ‘I’ll come with you guys.’
“And you’d be sitting in the car there and nine o’clock would come, and two minutes past nine would come and Warnie would turn around the corner, butting out his last cigarette, hop in the car and ready to go – and it was just fun. He was predictable, but it was just wonderful.”
Lawry agreed it was a fitting tribute that the Great Southern Stand would be re-named after Warne.
“It’s a funny thing, naming a stand after a player,” Lawry said, referencing his father’s love of Bill Ponsford.
“It was just amazing, and that’s what will happen with Warne.
“It’ll be popular at the moment but it’ll be more popular in 20 years’ time when their fathers or grandfathers will be talking about Warne, and they’ll be able to go to the MCG and see his figures on the wall. Just superb.”