When asked about the most iconic moment in Australian cricket, sports fans can recall the moment rookie Shane Warne bowled the “Ball of the Century” and announced himself on the world stage.
Australia is in a state of shock after the news broke that the legendary bowler died of a suspected heart attack while on holiday in Thailand.
The 52-year-old spin king was found unconscious at the Samujana Villas resort on the island of Koh Samui in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Warne was known as the larger-than-life cricket larrikin with a passion for the game that was often matched by his headlines off the field.
While he dazzled and enthralled cricket fans as the blonde-haired, blue-eyed hero of the sport, his role in controversies such as sex scandals, drug taking and gambling also dominated headlines during his career.
He was known as a playboy off the pitch, renowned for his love of cigarettes and beer.
A mediocre start
After a failed start in football, Warne turned his focus to cricket and played in just seven first-class matches when he was chosen to make his Test debut at the SCG against India in January 1992.
He had an underwhelming start to his career until he came up against Sri Lanka in Colombo in the second innings and nabbed three wickets, helping Australia win by 16 runs.
Following the game, Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga said a “bowler with a Test average of more than 300 snatched the victory from our hands”.
Warne wasn’t picked for the first home Test of the summer against the West Indies from 1992-93, but was recalled for the second Test in Melbourne.
He took 7/52 at the Boxing Day Test in the second innings – a performance which helped him get picked for the 1993 Ashes tour.
The Ball of the Century
At just 23, Warne wrote himself into cricket history by bowling what is now known to be “Ball of the Century” against England batter Mike Gatting.
The peroxide-haired rookie produced the moment of magic with his very first delivery at Old Trafford and dismissed Gatting, pitching the ball outside leg stump only for it to soar back past Gatting’s guard.
The former England captain was stunned, unsure of what had just occurred as he walked off the pitch.
Warne went on to be the leading wicket-taker for the six-Test series, launching his 15 year career where he would take 708 test wickets.
But the career did not come without controversy.
Deals with a bookie
Just after he became known for his golden arm, Warne was found guilty of making deals with a bookie during the 1994 Sri Lanka tour.
He and Mark Waugh were accused of making arrangements with a bookie and accepting money in exchange of disclosing pitch details and weather continues before the start of a match.
The Australian Cricket Board revealed the scandal in 1998 and confirmed it had fined both players.
“There was a series of events, one after another, that seemed to keep coming out,” Warne said years later.
“There was myself and Mark Waugh, people call it the bookie scandal. The betting thing was something innocent that I got cleared of, I never did any match-fixing or anything like that — I didn’t even know the guy was a bookie.”
Consuming a banned substance
Just before the start of the World Cup in 2003, Warne’s drug test conducted during a One Day International series in Australia came back positive for a banned diuretic.
Warne claimed he took only one of what he called a “fluid tablet” to get in shape, saying his mother gave it to him.
He was sent home from South Africa and was found guilty of breaching the drug code.
Cricket Australia banned him from playing for an entire year, during which he took up commentary.
“I never blamed mum — all I ever said was I got it off my mum,” he later said.
Marriage and divorce to Simone Callahan
In 1995, Warne married Simone Callahan after the pair met three years earlier at a celebrity event in Melbourne.
The couple gave birth to their first child, Brooke, in 1997 and went on to have two more children, Jackson and Summer.
Warne’s most famous public scandal was his marriage breakdown with Simone, and was vocal about how much he regretted it, claiming the tabloids took its toll on their marriage.
He was also caught cheating with multiple women.
In an Amazon Prime program about Warne’s life, he admitted to drowning his sorrows alone in the hotel room and drank until he was “crying on the floor” when his family fled England in the wake of scandals.
Ms Callahan spoke of her heartbreak when she landed in the UK to find stories of her husband’s multiple infidelities splashed across newspapers.
She had planned to “set up a life in England” and uprooted their life in Australia.
“My wife and kids were coming over for The Ashes and unfortunately, there was a story that broke with me and two women just before they landed — and Simone read that story,” Warne said.
“I think that was the lowest, because it had nothing to do with anything else — I didn’t get to see my children and they couldn’t get to see me, and it was my fault.”
Simone and the children returned to Australia just two weeks later.
She said the news turned her life “on its head”.
Warne owned up to his mistakes and confessed that he “gave into temptation”.
The pair got divorced in 2005 and there were rumours they were getting back together in 2007 but Simone called it off when Warne mistakenly sent her a text which was meant for another woman.
Dirty talk scandal
In 2000, during his ten year marriage to Simone Callahan, Warne was stripped of his vice-captaincy after reports of him sending constant messages to a British woman surfaced.
He infamously went on national television to deny he harassed nurse Donna Wright but admitted he “had a bit of dirty talk on the phone” with her.
The pair engaged in several “dirty” phone calls after they met at a nightclub.
Ms Wright broke the scandal by telling London’s Daily Mirror Warne had slipped his hotel room keycard into her pocket and invited her to his room.
Warne denied he ever “harassed” her and said Ms Wright was not giving the full story.
Simone stood by him during the scandal but Warne conceded that she was “disappointed” by what he did.
“We’re like any married couple, we have our ups and downs, she has stood by me,” he said at the time.
Tryst with two women
After a year of scandal and dealing with his divorce, Warne retired from international cricket in 2006, having grabbed 708 wickets in his career.
Later that same year he was famously pictured in News of the World in his playboy underwear with models Coralie Eichholz and Emma Kearney.
The sex scandal was finally uncovered in 2018 when Warne, then 36, revealed the full details of the infamous threesome – which also involved a blow-up sex toy.
He was playing county cricket in England at the time and was sent a text inviting him to meet the 25-year-old models that said “you should be here with me”.
“They were in London, I was in Southampton. I texted back, saying I’d be there in an hour,” Warne wrote in his book No Spin.
He picked up alcohol and drove to Kearney’s house where the models began to dance with each other “very provocatively” and “very sexually”.
Warne watched them while having a drink and the women pulled out a “massive, inflatable sex toy”.
“There was a lot of laughter, another drink, and one thing led to another,” he wrote.
“I started kissing them both, clothes off, and then, from nowhere, they pulled a bed out of the wall! Well, we just went for it.”
After the escapades Warne left the apartment at 2.30am and drove back to the cricket ground where he slept for just a few hours ahead of a game.
Bitter relations with other cricketers
Warne is known for not getting along with legendary cricketer Steve Waugh.
It is believed to have started when Waugh dropped Warne from the third Test squad of the 1999 West Indies tour.
In 2016, he called the former captain the “most selfish cricketer” he had ever played with.
Waugh brushed off the criticism, saying he had never bought into the feud.
“People keep saying it’s a feud. But to me, a feud is between two people. I’ve never bought into it, so it’s just one person,” he said.
“His comments are a reflection of himself, nothing to do with me. That’s all I’d say.”
Relationship with Liz Hurley
Warne began dating British actress Liz Hurley in late 2010 before popping the question to the Austin Powers actress in September 2011.
The pair were together for two years, during which allegations Warne had a 2011 fling with porn star Chloe Conrad was published by the Sunday Mirror.
Shortly after, Hurley tweeted: ‘Happy Valentine’s Day! Remember, love is like a rollercoaster ride- sometimes it’s exhilarating but sometimes you feel sick and want to get off.’
The pair managed to move past the allegations, staying together until their split in late 2013.
Warne said of the romance in 2018: “Who knows what the future holds. There’s a difference between in love with someone and loving someone. I’ll always love Elizabeth but I don’t think we’ll ever get back together.”
Relationship with Emily Scott
Warne’s last official and public relationship was with DJ and model Emily Scott, with the pair dating for just three months in 2014 before calling it quits.
The relationship with brief but there was still talk of scandal when Warne was pictured in London with Sophie Monk during their time together.
Monk confirmed the pair had kissed, but Warne vehemently denied the allegations.
Noisy sex party
Warne was widely reported to have had a noise four-way sex party with his lover and two escorts at his London home in 2019.
He was 49 at the time and is believed to have thrown the windows open at his $4.8 million Maida Vale mansion during the antics.
It was so loud the neighbours could hear.
The unnamed lover reportedly turned up at the home with two sex workers identified as Davina, 19, and Poppy, 27, who worked for $720 and $900 respectively.
A neighbour said: “He was having quite a party in there and didn’t seem to give a damn who heard what was going on.
“He left the windows wide open and you could clearly hear all the noises.”
Tinder fiend
The cricket legend became known for his reported use of online dating apps.
Triple M host and friend of Warne Lawrence Mooney last year said: “His life is Tinder, beers, darts, gambling and cricket. Those five things, that’s it.”
Single mother Kim MxjmtzywcGrath also claimed to have hooked up with Warne after matching with him on Tinder.
She told Woman’s Daythe pair had a “wild sex romp” where the cricketer asked her to “stand in the corner in high heels” while he spanked her.
In early 2016, 24-year-old Simone Toon claimed she met Warne on a website for sugar daddies.
The model told The Sun Warne send pictures of his “manhood” and told her he wanted to “whip and spank” her.
The newspaper reported Simone said the Spin King was ‘begging her for a kinky threesome with a ’sl*t’’ just minutes after they met.
Months later, Warne was caught by paparazzi at socialite Brynne Edelsten’s apartment late at night, and accused her of tipping off the photographers.
She later showed magazines his texts.
“Excited for me to devour u? X” one of Warne’s steamy messages to Brynne read.
Final years
In the final years of his life, Warne regained some of his former image.
He spent time with his children, worked as a cricket commentator and appeared on reality TV show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison described Warne as one of the nation’s greatest cricketers and characters.
Warne’s family has been offered a state funeral.
