The news of Shane Warne’s death was to cricket what David Bowie’s was to music

At 2pm on a sleepy Friday afternoon, Fox Sports put out a tweet that shook the cricketing world. Shane Warne, 52, had died of a heart attack.

The news was to cricket what David Bowie’s death was to music – and the instinctive, almost visceral reaction was to reject it from the pit of the stomach: he can’t be.

But working in a newsroom means forcing yourself to process information you might normally take some time to digest, especially in the digital age, with no late-night newspaper deadlines and only an unabating website to serve.

Everything stopped. A message went to The Independent’s lead cricket writer, Vithushan Ehantharajah, asking for information while the desk prepared a potential story. “Checking,” he replied, and a few minutes later he confirmed the unthinkable.

The next hours rushed by. Soon, the story was broken, a live blog was up and running to update readers with emerging details, and another story collated the outpouring of emotion from old teammates, rivals and fans.

The news desk worked up an obituary as the video team sourced footage of Warne’s most famous moments, like his iconic “ball of the century” to dismiss Mike Gatting in his very first Ashes delivery.

It was apt that even in death Warne managed to evoke joy, as his back catalogue flooded social media. It was only much later, once the sun had set and the newsroom had emptied, that Vithushan’s perfectly pitched words arrived to capture the desolation of it all.

Only then did the news finally sink in. A unique character and a genius of the game was gone. Cricket goes on, but it will never be quite the same.

Yours,

Lawrence Ostlere

Assistant sports editor