“Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived,” the statement read. “The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.” Thai Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious. His death comes hours after another former Australian cricket great, wicketkeeper Rod Marsh died on Friday at the age of 74. Warne's last post on Twitter, 12 hours before his death was reported, was a tribute to Marsh: “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,” Warne wrote. Credited for reviving the art of leg spin, Warne made his Test debut in 1992 against India. And by the time he ended his 15-year international career, he had established himself as one of the all-time greats of the game. He also had 293 wickets from 194 one-day internationals and won the man-of-the-match award when Australia beat Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup final.

In 2000, he was rated among the five greatest cricketers of the 20th century by Wisden, alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Viv Richards. Warne was one of the game's prominent crowd-pullers, whose craft as well as lifestyle often made headlines. The wily spinner frequently courted controversy and served a 12-month ban after testing positive for banned diuretics in 2003.