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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Liam Llewellyn

Cruel England chant Shane Warne opened up on months before tragic death

Shane Warne last year opened up on a cruel chant from England fans during his playing career.

The cricketer passed away due to a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 on Friday.

The Australian enjoyed 15 hugely successful years as an international cricketer, especially against his country’s biggest rivals.

The leg spinner took an astounding 195 wickets in the Ashes, more than any other bowler and emerged victorious on multiple occasions.

However, he was part of the Australian side that lost 2-1 to England in the memorable 2005 series.

During that compelling five-match test series, Warne was subject to a savage chant from the Barmy Army months after his divorce from Simone Callahan, a former promotions girl for Foster’s.

Shane Warne opened up on the cruel chant he suffered during the 2005 Ashes series (REUTERS)

Months before his tragic death, the Aussie shared his horrific treatment from his rival fans.

He told Fox Cricket: "A week before the Ashes series to do that, and have to drag me off the canvas to get out there and play, in 2005, against a quality England side.

"To have the Barmy Army for six hours a day, not just 10 minutes singing songs, saying 'Where's your missus gone?'

"But, I'm sitting there worrying about my children, with who I was hoping to spend three months of the Ashes series with.

"And because of my own doing, they had to turn around and find a flight, so I was devastated about that.

"And that was the lowest point in my life, and I had to go out and play an Ashes series."

The divorce came after reports emerged Warne had cheated on Callahan, which he later admitted.

His family, including his three children, left England on the eve of the Ashes, leaving a devastated Warne alone in his hotel room.

Warne admitted in his documentary Shane: "I was on my own on the hotel room floor, crying ‘you d***head'.”

It was a torrid time for the cricket legend, but the following year he helped his team regain the Ashes in the 2006-07 series Down Under, annihilating England 5-0.

Warne took 23 of his 195 Ashes wickets in the whitewash, and the final Test of the series marked his last ever international match.

The cricketer is regarded as one of the game’s greatest ever players and helped revitalise the art of leg-spin bowling when he burst onto the scene in the 1990s.

He took a mammoth 708 Test match wickets during his illustrious career, along with 293 scalps in ODI cricket, and helped Australia win the Cricket World Cup in 1999, where he was the joint top wicket-taker and won the man of the match in the final.

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