Warne’s generosity and a great show!

A cricket books lover and collector of cricket memorabilia was at the receiving end of some touching generosity from an overseas friend post the death of Shane WarneA packet containing a signed copy of Shane Warne My Illustrated Career arrived for him all the way from New York earlier this weekWho in this age would part with a Warnesigned book wondered the beneficiary Valid question simply because the value of a signature of a deceased celebrity is pricelessAnd while he thought about this again he realised that the gesture was akin to the kind of generosity Warne displayed throughout his lifeThe departed legspinning great was known to be bighearted when it came to pulling out his purse or be forthcoming with his time for people less fortunate than himselfDuring the state memorial service at the Melbourne Cricket Ground MCG last Wednesday his father Keith spoke about how once he had just picked up Shane from the airport after one long overseas tour During the ride Keith told Shane about a Melbournebased kid who was suffering from cancer and that he longed to meet him Shane asked Keith to call the kidrsquos father to check if it was fine for him to arrive at their home to meet the boy They ended up going there spending a couple of hours with the kid before Keith drove Shane to meet his own kids for the first time after the tourKeith provided more examples of his sonrsquos generous spirit He delivered a moving speech but he didnrsquot choke until the last bit when he quoted his sonrsquos words that summarised his life mdashldquoI smoked I drank and I played alittle cricketrdquoKeith Warnersquos could well have been the best tribute of the evening amidst a whole lot of spoken words at the G the term Warne often used to describe his home groundAround 54000 people were at the MCG which played host to a great show to honour their favourite sonHaving been fortunate to visit Melbourne across three tours Down Under I couldnrsquot help thinking how great this Victorian city has been for sport across the ages Remember it hosted the 1956 Olympic Games the firstever Test match in 1877 as well as the 100th one in 1977 and two World Cup cricket finals Remarkably it raised its game as it were each time just like it did on March 30 to do justice to the magnitude of the eventMelbourne is a city with a heart I remember how proactive the entire region got when it came to collecting funds for the 2004 tsunami victims in Sri Lanka A Cricket Asia v Rest of the World game was organised there after just 12 days of planning and Warne was very much part of that actionBefore the game Richie Benaud told viewers how Warne wanted to be part of the match and had said ldquoIrsquom in that gamerdquo even though he had retired from limited overs cricketWarne even flew down to tsunamiravaged Galle to help fellow spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan with his relief work the trip emerging after just one question ldquoWhat can I do to helprdquoAt the memorial service Andrea Egan of The Lionrsquos Share a United Nationsbacked Wildlife conservation fund spoke about how Warne had hopes of ldquorewriting the future protecting animals and their habitatrdquo when he joined the programme in 2021 She added ldquoShane was a man of his word He was generous He used his fame to lean into The Lionrsquos Share at this most pivotal time for the planetrdquoFollowing Eganrsquos short speech Chris Martin of the group Coldplay appeared on the screen singing Yellow for Warne in Central AmericaThe people behind the Warne memorial need to be handed out the biggest of accolades How fortunate his Melbournebased fans were to be able to buy tickets and witness a great show I canrsquot imagine this happening in India especially the part about the people behind the show having a preevent press conference to spell out plans for the eveningFormer Australian Rules football player a close friend of Warne Eddie McGuire knew what he was talking about when he said before the memorial ldquoThis is going to be one of the great events in the history of the city in this country in many ways a tribute to a championrdquoNormally farewells in Australian cricket are associated with the Sydney Cricket Ground SCG Greg Chappell Dennis Lillee Rodney Marsh Steve Waugh Glenn McGrath Justin Langer Shane Warnehellipall bid farewell to Test cricket at this venue But the MCG will go down in history for giving Warne the best farewell in the form of that splendid memorial service last weekShane Keith Warne inspired countless kid cricketers to become legspinners He set the benchmark for superlative performances with the ball and off the field he set high standards when it came to generosity Men of his ilk and fame will find it hard to match this but they must be it with their charity work involvement in social causes or just an autograph which that collector mentioned at the start of the piece will treasure forevermiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance He tweets ClaytonMurzelloSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper