By Jason Dasey
Cricket legend Shane Warne’s state memorial will be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 30, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.
Warne died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand last Friday. His body is expected to be flown home to his family from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport at 8am on Thursday, local time.
Mr Andrews took to Twitter to announce that the MCG would be the venue for the memorial service on Wednesday, March 30.
He said that information and tickets for the public would be available soon as Victorians had the chance to “pay tribute to Shane and his contribution [to] our state, and [to] his sport”.
“There’s nowhere in the world more appropriate to farewell Warnie than the ‘G’,” Mr Andrews wrote.
Warne was born in the Melbourne suburb of Upper Ferntree Gully and played 17 seasons for the Victorian state team, in addition to his 145 Test matches and 194 ODIs for Australia.
He also played at local level for St Kilda Cricket Club and was a passionate supporter of St Kilda in the AFL.
Warne was on holiday with friends at a health retreat last week when he was found unresponsive in his Koh Samui villa.
Thailand police announced on Monday that Warne’s death was from a suspected heart attack, with no suspicious circumstances.
Warne’s family members said they “gratefully accepted” the offer of a state funeral by Mr Andrews.
His parents, Keith and Brigitte Warne, said in a statement that a future without their son is “inconceivable” and “a tragedy we will never come to terms with”.
The state memorial will be in addition to a private funeral held by the Warne family.
Originally published as Shane Warne to have state memorial at MCG on March 30, Premier Daniel Andrews says
