Ricky Ponting pays tearful tribute to ex-teammate Shane Warne [Watch]

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting condoled the passing away of Shane Warne, dubbing him the best bowler he ever played with or against. Shane Warne, aged 52, passed away on Friday, because of a suspected heart attack.

"Hard to put this into words. I first met him when I was 15 at the Academy. He gave me my nickname. We were teammates for more than a decade, riding all the highs and lows together. Through it all he was someone you could always count on, someone who loved his family," Ricky Ponting tweeded.

"Someone who would be there for you when you needed him and always put his mates first. The greatest bowler I ever played with or against. RIP King. My thoughts are with Keith, Bridgette, Jason, Brooke, Jackson and Summer," Ponting added.

In a video, Ricky Ponting paid tribute to Shane Warne and said it would take some time for the news to sink in. "I have had a few hours now to digest it all and think about how big a part of my life he was and reflect on a lot of those memories," Ponting said.

Here's the video: 

The spinner was one of the most prominent cricketers in history. Warne single-handedly reinvented the art of leg-spin when he first came into the international circuit in the early 1990s, and by the time he retired in 2007, he had become the first bowler to scalp 700 Test wickets.

A key figure in Australia's ICC World Cup win in 1999, he was judged as player of the match in both the semi-final and the final, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack honoured Shane Warne's achievements by naming him as one of its Five Cricketers of the Twentieth Century.

The leg spinner ended his career with 708 Test wickets and 293 in ODIs, placing him second in the list of all-time international wicket-takers behind Muttiah Muralitharan.

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