MIKE WHITNEY 'THE WARNIE ONLY I KNEW'

AT JUST 22, SHANE MADE A LASTING IMPRESSION

- Phillip Koch

Mike Whitney first got to know Shane Warne almost 30 years ago, when he was just starting to show glimpses of the cricket genius he was to become. He even laughs out loud remembering the “tubby kid” with a blond mullet who was like a naughty little brother.

“I was Shane’s first roomie on his first overseas trip to Sri Lanka,” he tells New Idea exclusively, explaining the Australian cricket captain at the time, Allan Border, asked him to take the new kid from St Kilda under his wing.

“I was 32, Shane was 22. That was Shane’s first overseas trip with the Australian team. He was tubby, had a mullet, ate baked beans and smoked cigarettes. He was a classic, even then. And he never really changed.”

Mike, now 63, says he thought there had been a terrible mix-up when two cricket mates texted him in the early hours of Saturday morning to share the news that Shane had died mere hours after fellow Test cricket legend, Rod Marsh.

Allan Border, Greg Matthews and Mike are now the only three players who played Test cricket with both Shane and Rod, and their losses left the former host of Sydney Weekender stunned and so grief-stricken, he was initially unable to even talk about it.

“I will miss that he never changed,” says Mike.

“A lot of people forget, but Shane never forgot where he came from. That’s what I will miss about him – the Shane that I knew and the bloke who never really changed, even when he went to the highest of heights on and off the field.”