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

It was apt that even in death the Aussie genius managed to evoke joy, as his back catalogue flooded social media, writes Lawrence Ostlere

The talismanic spin bowler took 708 wickets for Australia in an illustrious 15-year Test career (PA Wire)

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.