Australian cricket legend Shane Warne spent six months in Bristol playing for Imperial Cricket Club in 1989 and helped one local resident dig a pond in their garden.
Warne tragically passed away in March at the age of just 52 and a touching story about his time in Bristol has been shared on social media by England fan group the Barmy Army. The story reads: "Shane Warne played for the Imperial Cricket Club in Bristol when he was 18, sleeping in the pavilion at night, and helped out as a groundsman.
"One day he was checking the boundary and passing our house, which adjoins the Imperial ground, when he noticed my wife digging out a new garden pond. Offering to help, he jumped over the fence and spent the rest of the day helping her to complete the excavation.
"He told her that his ambition was to play cricket for Australia one day. We are now considering calling our garden pond the Shane Warne Memorial Pond."
Reacting to the story, one fan simply wrote: "What a man! Greatly missed." Another added: "Still can’t believe he’s gone, the world is a poorer place without him".
"Thanks ... for sharing another story about wonderful Warnie," wrote a third. "We could all use a bit of Shane’s approach to life."
Warne had fond memories of his time in Bristol, writing in his 2018 autobiography 'No Spin': "I was 19 years old and began to hang out with a bunch of great guys who loved a beer and taught me how to drink a pint.
"We're talking truckloads of them. I was 79 kilograms on the scales when I left Oz and I came back 99 kilos.
"I learned to drink, play cricket and, well, a few other things about life too! It was competitive enough for me to have to pull a finger out or be the Aussie pro who made a goose of himself."
