"...How Much I Love Him": Ricky Ponting Chokes Up During Tribute To Shane Warne
Ricky Ponting, who was captain of the Australian cricket team for the latter part of Shane Warne's storied international career said that Warne was a great teacher of the game and always helped out youngsters.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting looked extremely emotional and almost broke down in the middle of an interview for the International Cricket Council (ICC), as he spoke about, and paid tribute to, his former teammate and great friend Shane Warne, who passed away recently in Thailand, aged 52, due to a "suspected heart attack".
ICC posted a snippet from the interaction between Ponting and former England women's cricketer and presenter Isa Guha. The post was captioned, "An emotional, must-watch interview as Ricky Ponting pays tribute to his great mate Shane Warne."
Watch: Ricky Ponting Gets Emotional While Talking About Shane Warne
"Like I have said to a lot of the guys I have been talking to over the last couple of days, just how much I love him I guess, I didn't say that to him and I wish I did," said a visibly emotional Ponting, who almost chocked up while answering a question on what he would like to say to Warne.
Ponting, who was captain of the Australian cricket team for the latter part of Warne's storied international career said that Warne was a great teacher of the game and always helped out youngsters.
Ponting wants to make sure Warne's positive attitude, cricket acumen and willingness to mentor the younger generation is not lost to the game.
"He was a teacher through his commentary and I've seen hundreds of photos over the last 24 hours of all the spinners he worked with,” Ponting told Isa Guha, on The ICC Review.
“He helped Steve Smith in his younger days and Rashid Khan has been catching up with him - just imagine the conversations they would have had.
"So I feel it is now up to me whenever I get an opportunity to just let the world know what he was like and pass on some of the things I learnt from him," the three-time ICC World Cup winner added.
Ponting described how shocked he was when he received the news of Warne's death from his wife.
"I woke up nice and early I was getting the kids ready to go to netball and Rianna (Ponting's wife) looked at her phone and told me the news about Warney," he said.
"I grabbed the phone out of her hand to look at it and I couldn't believe it and it is still the same now.
"It was so raw to me I couldn't really speak and every time I thought about him and our experiences and our journey together and I just got short for words.
"Even today I have had the TV on watching the tributes, but every time I hear his voice I have to turn it off.
"It's been a tough couple of days, but it makes us a bit more aware of things I probably need to pay more attention to and there is stuff there for all of us to learn.”
Australia Cricket Team