Australian cricket legend Shane Warne died from natural causes, an autopsy has confirmed. Warne's management announced his shock passing on Friday, March 4, after he was found unresponsive in his villa.
Thai police revealed the results of the autopsy on Monday (March 7). The Mirror reports his family have been informed and accept the finding, with the ex-Test star's body now due to be transferred to Australian consular officials for return to Australia where he will be given a state funeral.
"Today investigators received the autopsy result, in which the medical opinion is that the cause of death is natural," Thai deputy national police spokesman Kissana Phathanacharoen said in a statement. "Investigators will summarize the autopsy result for prosecutors within the timeframe of the law."
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Warne's management confirmed in a statement on Friday that the Australian icon had died at the age of 52. The statement read: “Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived.”
Tributes have poured in for the cricketing legend, who played for local clubs in Bristol before his career took off.
As Bristol Live reported, Warne spent a summer playing for Imperial Cricket Club in Brislington, Bristol in the 1980s. He recalled in his autobiography that he "thought of it as an opportunity for some fun and games away from home while I pondered my future."
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In 1988 Steve Windaybank, now president of Knowle Cricket Club, was sent to pick up two young Australian cricketers from Temple Meads. They were the latest players to take advantage of an arrangement, started in 1979, between cricket clubs in Bristol at the St Kilda club in Melbourne.
On that day in 1988, one player was already familiar to Knowle – and the other was an unknown. Mr Windaybank said: “There was a very good young player called Ricky Gough, who had been over once already. He came on the train from Heathrow with Shane Warne, although I did not know Warne’s name when I went to pick them up.
"He had this long blond hair – he looked like he had come straight from the beach. I took them both up to the George Hotel on Wells Road, sat them down and told Ricky that he was playing for Knowle and Shane that he was going to be at Imperial. Looking back you could say we made the wrong decision but nobody knew at the time he was going to go on and become the player he did, being named as one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the century.”
In his career Shane Warne took 708 Test wickets, which was the second most of all time. He took this in 145 matches across his 15-year career. He won the 1999 50-over World Cup and claimed 293 dismissals in 194 one-day internationals between 1993 and 2005.
Warne retired from international cricket in 2007 after Australia's 5-0 Ashes clean sweep of England. He also retired from first-class as List A cricket with Hampshire later that year.
He retired from all formats of cricket in 2013, having continued to play Twenty20 cricket. He worked as a pundit and commentator, as well as a coach.
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