Shane Warne has been elevated to ‘legend’ status in the Sport Australia Hall Of Fame nine months to the day of his devastating death.
The Australian sporting great has become the fifth cricketer in history to be bestowed the honour.
The news was announced on Sunday night (December 4), nine months after the cricket icon passed away at the age of 52, suffering a heart attack while holidaying in Thailand.
He joins an esteemed list of cricketers, the likes of Sir Donald Bradman, Keith Miller, Richie Benaud, and Dennis Lillee, to be recognised with such an honour.
Warne joined the Hall of Fame in 2009 and became eligible for legend status this year following 15 years of retirement from Test cricket.
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Warne is widely viewed as the greatest leg-spinner of all time, having taken 708 wickets in Test cricket over the course of a remarkable 15-year international career with Australia between 1992 and 2007.
He was the joint-leading wicket-taker when Australia won the Cricket World Cup in 1999, and was part of five Ashes-winning sides between 1993 and 2003.
Warne famously produced the 'Ball of the Century' with his first delivery of the 1993 Ashes tour, dismissing England batsman Mike Gatting.
In total, he took 1001 wickets for Australia across all formats and remains second on the all-time list of top wicket-takers in Test cricket, behind only Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan.
Warne was joined by track and field great Ron Clarke to be named as a ‘legend’ in the weekend.
Clarke broke 17 world records over different distances, with 12 of those records set during a 44-day tour of Europe in 1965.
He is considered one of the best track and field athletes to never win a gold medal at the Olympics.
His best result at the games was a bronze medal in the 10,000m in 1964, whilst he also won four Commonwealth Games silver medals.
He was part of an iconic moment in Australian sporting history when John Landy stopped to help him after he’d fallen during the Australian mile championship in 1956.
He became mayor of Gold Coast in 2004, before passing away after a short illness at the age of 78 in 2015.
A TV special will be played out on Thursday (December 8) following the announcement.
Jayden Collins