An emotional Ricky Ponting has paid tribute to long-time teammate Shane Warne add vowed to help his legacy by passing on Warne’s teachings to a new generation of cricketers.
The pair shared a dressing room as part of the Australia side that dominated world cricket in the 1990s and into the early 2000s, with Ponting captaining the side during the final years of Warne’s Test career.
As with the rest of the cricket community, Ponting was left stunned by news of Warne’s death at the age of just 52, which emerged last Friday after he was found unresponsive by friends at his villa in Thailand.
“I woke up nice and early I was getting the kids ready to go to netball and Rianna [his wife] looked at her phone and told me the news about Warney,” Ponting said.
“I grabbed the phone out of her hand to look at it and I couldn’t believe it and it is still the same now.
“It was so raw to me I couldn’t really speak and every time I thought about him and our experiences and our journey together and I just got short for words.
“Even today I have had the TV on watching the tributes, but every time I hear his voice I have to turn it off.
“It’s been a tough couple of days, but it makes us a bit more aware of things I probably need to pay more attention to and there is stuff there for all of us to learn.”
Warne’s brilliance with the ball helped revive the fading art of leg-spin following his emergence in the ‘90s and he went on to take 708 Test wickets, an all-time record when he retired, though Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan has since surpassed that mark.
In the days since Warne’s death, many of the current crop of leading cricketers around the world have spoken of his influence and Ponting is determined to ensure the next generation continue to benefit, despite Warne’s death.
“He was a teacher through his commentary and I’ve seen hundreds of photos over the last 24 hours of all the spinners he worked with,” he added.
“He helped [Australia batter] Steve Smith in his younger days and [Afghanistan spinner] Rashid Khan has been catching up with him - just imagine the conversations they would have had.
“So I feel it is now up to me whenever I get an opportunity to just let the world know what he was like and pass on some of the things I learnt from him.”
