Warnie will be Legend
Clarke elevated too
SPIN king Shane Warne and legendary distance runner Ron Clarke are set to be officially recognised as the legends they were of Australian sport.
Cricket great Warne and champion runner Clarke will be elevated to Legend status in the nation’s most prestigious sporting club, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
The late Victorian-born greats who thrilled fans in extraordinary careers representing Australia will join an elite group of just 44 people handed the honour. Warne’s proud children Jackson, Summer and Brooke said their dad would have been thrilled to join a list of Aussie sporting immortals such as Don Bradman, Cathy Freeman, Rod Laver and Dawn Fraser.
“He would be very happy to be in that group,” Warne’s son Jackson said.
“No matter how many awards he received, trophies he got or records he broke, he was always the same person to us, which was just Dad. So we are always going to be proud of him no matter what status he gets but it’s awesome because this type of recognition is the highest degree of awards, you can’t get higher than this in the Hall of Fame.
“It’s just a shame he wasn’t here to see it because I know he would have been very grateful.”
Daughter Brooke said: “It’s a bit weird he’s not here to accept the award but it’s just awesome and very well deserved. He was always himself and I think that is what made people feel like they knew him, everyone felt like he was their mate.”
Warne, the first player to break the 700-wicket barrier in a sublime 15-year Test career, was one of Australia’s most loved and recognisable sporting heroes. But his daughter Summer said he was much more than a cricketer.
‘‘I’m so proud of him and I’m so proud to call him my dad,” she said.
Still reeling from Warne’s shock death in Thailand this year, she said the outpouring of love and admiration for their famous father had helped the family deal with the grief of losing “the best dad”.
Hall of Fame legend and chair John Bertrand said Warne and Clarke “symbolise everything that is great about sport in Australia”.
“Shane Warne and Ron Clarke are the true definition of legends – inspirations to all Australians,” he said.
Warne is Australia’s greatest Test wicket-taker, claiming 708 scalps from 145 starts at an average of 25.41 and another 293 in one-day internationals.
Clarke was among his era’s greatest distance runners, breaking 17 world records and holding every world record from two miles to the one-hour run in a career personified by fierce determination, grace and humility. He lit the cauldron at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was one of 120 inaugural members inducted to the hall of fame in 1985.