'HIT US HARD'
Joe Root reveals how shock at Shane Warne’s death spread through England dressing room
ENGLAND cricket captain Joe Root has revealed the dressing room was left stunned at Shane Warne's sudden death.
The legend, 52, was with pals at a luxury villa when he was found unresponsive on Friday after suffering a suspected heart attack.
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His desperate friends performed CPR for around 20 minutes before paramedics took him to the Thai International Hospital, where he was sadly pronounced dead.
Skipper Root revealed how the devastating news spread through the England team after they held a minute's silence during their warm-up match in Antigua.
He said: "It's shocked us all in the dressing room. Condolences to his loved ones and his family and friends.
"We had just started the game and it filtered through the dressing room. It's been quite a quiet dressing room off the back of it. It's hit everyone quite hard if I'm being brutally honest."
Root "fondly" recalled how he got the chance to discuss cricket with the Aussie sporting legend.
He also told how Warne was a "massive influence" on his career after the 2005 Ashes series.
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The captain added: "We had two or three hours and his energy for the game, his love and compassion for the sport and just wanting to see it played at the peak of its powers was evident to see.
"He really loved the game of cricket.
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“Anyone that you speak to says how formidable he was to play against, not just with his skill level and how he played the game but he did it in the right way.
"The way he captured the nation with his phenomenal performances were the sort of things that made you want to get into the game and play at the highest level.”
Warne had arrived in Thailand on Thursday with friends for a lad's holiday.
Police Senior Sergeant Major Suporn Hemruangsree said the group were sleeping on Friday afternoon when a pal tried to wake Warne, who was unresponsive.
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His death came just hours after tweeting his "sadness" at the death of cricket legend Rod Marsh who suffered a heart attack aged 74.
He said: "Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed. He was a legend of our great game & an inspiration to so many young boys & girls.
"Rod cared deeply about cricket & gave so much especially to Australia & England players.
"Sending lots & lots of love to Ros &; the family. RIP mate."
Shane captained the Australia national team in One Day Internationals and was widely considered one of the greatest bowlers in cricket history.
As well as playing internationally, he played domestic cricket for his home state of Victoria and English domestic cricket for Hampshire.
The star was captain of Hampshire for 3 seasons from 2005 to 2007 and played his first test match in 1992 and took over 1,000 international wickets.
CRICKET LEGEND
Perhaps the most-viewed cricket clip of all time, the icon's Ball of the Century at Old Trafford in 1993 was the start of the leg-spinner’s legend.
His very first delivery in Ashes cricket swerved in the air, landed outside Mike Gatting’s leg stump and turned so savagely that it clipped the top of off stump.
Australia won the match and clinched the Ashes. Gatting’s bemused look as he trudged off was a picture.
On December 21, 2006, Warned announced his retirement following the fifth Ashes Test match at the SCG.
He said it was his intention to "go out on top" and added that he might have retired after the 2005 Ashes series if Australia had won.
Tributes have poured in for the cricketing legend after the heartbreaking news was announced yesterday.
Piers Morgan branded his close pal "unique, ferocious, mischievous" in his column for The Sun.
He added: "I’m absolutely gutted he’s gone so soon and will miss him enormously.
"But I enjoyed every second of my hundreds of hours in his exhilarating, unpredictable and always entertaining company, and of how many people in life can you say that?"
Gary Lineker tweeted: "Terribly saddened and shocked to hear the news that Shane Warne has died.
"The greatest spin bowler of all time. Can't quite believe it. RIP Shane."
England cricketing hero Monty Panesar told TalkRadio: "This is absolutely devastating, I'm sure the cricketing community will be completely shocked."
He said Warne was one of the "legends of the game" - "on and off the field, what he did for cricket was unbelievable."
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Monty went on: "It's absolutely shocking. I can't believe I'm even sort of talking to you about this."
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