Ricky Ponting admits he has to turn the TV down when he hears Shane Warne’s voice

The void left by Shane Warne’s untimely death is such that Ricky Ponting has to turn down the volume on the television every time he hears his late friend’s voice.

The spin king was elevated to Legend status in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame on Thursday and Ponting paid an emotional tribute to his former team-mate, who died in March at the age of 52 while on holiday in Thailand.

“Since he passed away I don’t know if it’s been the same at home, but if there were replays of cricket games I had to turn it off,” Ponting told Matthew Hayden on Channel 7.

‘You can hear his voice somewhere, and then you go and find where he is in the house and you have to turn the volume down.

‘We all notice the loss the most when the summer starts here in Australia.

“When he’s not here and when you’re not listening to the bold predictions, and you’re not listening to his genius in the comment box.”

Warne would have been a regular guest on the commentary box this summer for the T20 World Cup, the ODI series against England and the Test series against the West Indies and South Africa.

But Ponting quipped that the big late twist would get lost well beyond the confines of a comment box.

“The fact that we can’t see him on the golf course and make some money out of him over the course of the summer,” he joked with Hayden.

[He’s] Very sadly missed.

In the three-minute video, Ponting described Warne as “the greatest cricketer of the modern age” and the man who “single-handedly inspired a generation of boys and girls around the world” to take up cricket.

He remembers the extraordinary victory against England in Adelaide during the 2005-06 Ashes series as one of his fondest memories of his former teammate.

With Australia 1-0 up in the series after winning in Brisbane, England declared 6-551 in the first innings. The Aussies responded with 513, before pooling England for just 129 as Warne also 4-49 in 32 overs, setting the stage for an improbable six wicket victory.

“It was time to sit down and watch The King on his stage,” Ponting said of Warne’s performance.

“He bowled 32 of the most extraordinary overs.”

Warne and Ponting were part of the Australia team that won the 1999 Cricket World Cup, winning five of the six Ashes series they played together.

Ponting hailed his former teammate as the ‘ultimate competitor’, who ‘was never beaten’.

He added: ‘His achievements, passion and knowledge of the game were something to behold. She was a superstar, a game changer.

Warne and Ponting first met in 1992 at the Cricket Academy in Adelaide and “hit it off from our first introduction”, becoming close friends.

“He showed me the ropes, gave me my nickname which has stuck with me ever since,” the former Australian captain said in the tribute.

“I miss those chats so much.”

The tribute ended with Ponting lowering the microphone and fighting back tears.

“I got through it pretty well, I broke through,” Ponting told Hadyen, who played alongside him and Warne on the all-conquering Australian side that dominated in different formats for more than a decade.

‘Everything was autocued, I could see the end at the bottom of the page.

“I was going through it and it got to the bottom and that’s when I kind of lost it there.” I could go on for another 10-15 minutes.

Warne’s death came just hours after the death of Rod Marsh and two months before Andrew Symonds, who also played with Warne, Ponting and Hayden, was killed in a car accident.

Ponting himself suffered a health problem last week, when he had to abruptly leave the Channel 7 commentary position during the first Test between Australia and the West Indies in Perth and was rushed to hospital after complaining of pain in the neck. chest.

The emotion of losing such close friends in such a short time was ‘raw’, Hayden said, reflecting on the incredibly happy years for Australian cricket.

“We can rejoice in the fact that his spirit lives on in our great game,” he said.

‘In the spirit of cricket.’