The sudden passing of a renegade titan - less than 24 hours after the loss of Rod Marsh, another giant of the game - left cricket, and the sporting world, in shock.

Stunned grief gave way to an outpouring of tributes around the country, and the world.

As England paid tribute to a respected adversary who enriched and arguably saved Test cricket by his revival of spin bowling, and the Indian cricket team took a moment's silence on day two of the first Test against Sri Lanka, Australian Test captain Pat Cummins said the game would never be the same.

"We all grew up watching Warnie, idolising him. We all had posters on our walls, had his earrings," Cummins said in a video statement posted overnight. "The game of cricket was never the same after Shane emerged, and it will never be the same now he has gone."

At home, renowned Newcastle cricket personality Denis Broad felt the loss of two Australian cricketing legends as a devastating "double dose".

"They were great characters - really great characters of the game," Mr Broad - a life member of the NSW Cricket, NSW Country Cricket, and Newcastle District Cricket associations and the Hamilton-Wickham Cricket Club - said Saturday.

"(Warne) just did his own thing, didn't he ... He stood out on the pitch. When he got the ball, you always expected something, and of course he did something."

Mr Broad, who had attended every Sydney Test match since 1978 until two years of the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to his record, recalled some of Warne's on-pitch fame in equal parts with his off-pitch infamy.

"He did so many things didn't he?" He said, "He was a character in all forms of the game.

"The only thing he didn't do, of course, was he didn't captain Australia. I think that is one regret he probably had. A lot of people think he probably should have captained Australia ... he's done everything else, that's for sure."

Warne posted an astonishing career on the world's stage, but it was against England that he cemented himself as a hero at home and a nemesis abroad.

For more than a decade, Warne tormented the Brits after a blitzkrieg arrival to Test cricket in 1993, famously dismissing batsman Mike Gatting with what would later become known as the "ball of the century".

The cocky young bowler's first inquiry - his first bowl of his first Ashes series - looped the ball a foot outside the leg stump, only for it to boomerang in a cloud of dust as it struck the grounds of Old Trafford, eluding Gatting's defensive response, to clip the top of off-stump.

Gatting was left stunned and England was left 80 for two - a position from which they never recovered. With one ball, Warne had established himself as harasser-in-chief of the English batsmen, and gleeful villain to the infamous Barmy Army, claiming a record 195 wickets in his following 14-year reign, and a career tally of 708 from 145 Tests.

Warne's unrepentant Hollywood persona followed him off the pitch as well, through the wild tabloid fodder of drunken brawls, and a string of betting, drug and sex scandals throughout his career.

In the documentary, Shane, released only in January this year and detailing the leg-spinner's infamous career, Warne is heard in his own words:

"I was front page, back page, middle page, and everything was good," he said.

"I like loud music, I smoked, I drank, and I bowled a bit of leg spin. That was sort of me. I don't have any regrets."

But, despite his off-field antics, there were few who did more in transcending the sport to become an icon of the culture equally as much as they were an icon of the game.

"It is a big legacy, a great legacy for both players and for our history" Mr Broad said, "(Warne) spun us to a lot of victories and I'm sure we will have so many fond memories. I certainly have anyway - so many more fond memories than anything else from both players."

Warne had been on holiday in Thailand with friends when he was found unresponsive and unable to be revived Friday night, his management confirmed at the weekend.

The news was followed by an outpouring of grief and shock online and around the world. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has offered a state funeral to the Warne family, an offer that has been supported by the federal government.

Thai police have since told Reuters that the late cricketer's body had been taken for autopsy and that the friends who found him would be spoken with, but added there were no signs of foul play.

Warne was 52-years-old.

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