Shane Warne honored with top Australian Test Player award

• Announcement made on the first day of the Boxing Day Test against South Africa.
• Spinner died in March at the age of 52.
• Melbourne Cricket Ground was the setting for several of his career highlights.

Shane Warne would be honoured by having Australia’s annual Test Player of the Year award for men renamed after him. On Monday, tributes were paid to the late spin-king at the Boxing Day Test against South Africa.

Warne, who was revered in sports-crazed Australia as the country’s second-greatest athlete behind Donald Bradman, passed away suddenly in March at the age of 52.

Each year, the best male cricketer in the world will be honoured with the Shane Warne Men’s Test Player of the Year award, second only to the Allan Border Medal for the best player in the game regardless of format.

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley said, “As one of Australia’s all-time greats, it is fair we celebrate Shane’s outstanding contribution to Test cricket by naming this award in his name in perpetuity.”

Warne’s home ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, was the setting for several of his career highlights, including an Ashes hat trick and his 700th Test wicket, when the announcement was made on the first day of the Boxing Day Test.

Both the Australian and South African teams honored Warne by wearing white floppy hats during the playing of the national anthem and his Test cap number 350 was painted in the square of the wicket for the duration of the match.

According to Hockley, “his place as a legend of Australian and worldwide sport is assured.”

While we continue to grieve, it seems only right that we pay tribute to Shane at the Boxing Day Test he so dearly loved at the MCG.

Already, the venue has named a stand after him.

During his time on the Australian cricket team in the 1990s and 2000s, Warne was widely regarded as one of the best players in the world and was widely credited with revitalizing the leg-spin bowling technique.

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