Shane Warne thrilled and inspired in equal measure throughout his career but for all his wizardry with a cricket ball and charisma, like others touched by sporting genius he brought a fair amount of baggage to his chosen profession.
The Australian showman's death from a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 on Friday left the sports world numb with shock.
Leg spinner Warne, who took 708 wickets in 145 tests during a glittering career and who almost single-handedly made the game 'cool' for a new generation of fans, was pure box office.
Admired by his teammates and adored by fans - the peroxide blond Warne's 'rock star' lifestyle often landed him in hot water with cricket's notoriously stuffy top brass.
During his pomp Warne's ability to rip a wickedly spinning cricket ball into a batsman's stumps made him a regular on the back pages of newspapers, but a string of lurid controversies also kept the gossip columnists busy.
In 2000 Warne was stripped of the Australian vice-captaincy, after sending erotic text messages to a British nurse while married to his wife Simone Callahan.
After more scandals and a marital split, he began dating British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley, the couple getting engaged in 2011 before breaking it off.
In 1998 Warne, and teammate Mark Waugh, admitted that they had accepted money from an Indian bookmaker during a tour of Sri Lanka in 1994, both players were hit with fines.
Five years later, Warne was sent home in disgrace on the eve of the 2003 World Cup, after testing positive for a banned substance - a diuretic Warne said his mother had given him to improve his appearance.
He was banned for a year and used the time away from the pitch to forge a TV punditry career that made him one of the most recognisable voices in the commentary box.
Warne, who took cricket by storm when he bowled the so-called 'ball of the century' on his Ashes debut in 1993, was an integral part of Australia's greatest test team.
But there were ups and downs and he had a chequered relationship with his former captain Steve Waugh, who dropped him during a tour of West Indies in 1999.
In 2016, Warne described Waugh as the "most selfish cricketer" he had ever played with.
Even after retirement from the game in 2013, Warne remained a magnet for news. On the reality show I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2016, he questioned the theory of evolution and claimed that humans evolved from aliens.
Warne's penchant for ruffling feathers with his soap opera lifestyle probably prevented him from ever captaining the Australia test team, but the affection with which he was regarded in Australia and around the globe was enormous.
Former England captain Andrew Strauss, who faced Warne during the epic 2005 Ashes series and later worked with him as a pundit for Sky Sports, said Warne had a "passion for the game".
"He would love nothing more than to go out at night and talk cricket," Strauss told Sky Sports on Friday. "He was incredible company and you would never have a better night out than with Shane. He had a great generosity of spirit."'
Warne finished his career with 708 wickets in 145 tests, a record that was later broken by Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan (800), which included a career-best of 8-71 against England at the Gabba.
He also picked up 293 ODI wickets and won the World Cup with Australia in 1999. Warne too was a handy late-order batsman. Though his test average was only 17.3, he took the role seriously and holds the record for the most test runs (3,154) without a century - his highest score being 99.
Of those 708 wickets none would or could have made more impact than his first Ashes wicket, the infamous "ball of the century" that pitched outside leg stump and took off to shatter England batsman Mike Gatting's off peg at Old Trafford in the 1993 series.
Never before had a new talent blasted on to the scene in such devastating style.
Warne went on to become part of an all-conquering Australia side, with the likes of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie delivering relentlessly accurate pace attack that left Warne to rip into the worn-down batsmen.
When their job was done, the formidable batting lineup, headed by the likes of Mark Taylor, Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting, built totals that were a bowler's dream and opened the door for Warne to clean up and win match after match, series after series.
His endlessly repeatable action meant he could bowl marathon spells and such was his accuracy that, alongside being a demon attacking weapon, he was also parsimonious in terms of leaking runs - another unusual aspect for a spinner that made him effective in one-day games.
It was not all plain sailing, however, as in 2003 he failed a doping test for a diuretic and was banned from all cricket for a year - ruling him out of Australia's defence of the World Cup.
He returned from the layoff refreshed and fit and continued to take big hauls as he became the game's all-time leading wicket-taker in a cat-and-mouse competition with Muralitharan.
His final test was at Sydney in 2007 when he took his 1,000th international wicket in all forms of the game.
His career continued in T20, where he was a hugely popular captain of the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL, having also made friends with his oldest enemies in England as captain of County side Hampshire.
Having got a taste for broadcasting during his ban year, Warne became a hugely respected pundit after his retirement, never happier than when analysing the delivery of the latest spinner to follow in his footsteps.
Reuters.
