Australian cricket great Glenn McGrath says his old mate Shane Warne continues to inspire him as he spoke of his late wife Jane’s battle with cancer, which sparked their fundraising journey and the Sydney Pink Test.
McGrath is the president and co-founder of the McGrath Foundation, which was set up following Jane’s death from breast cancer in 2008, aged 42.
The foundation started out to deliver care nurses to people with breast cancer, but last year expanded to focus on all cancers.
Jane McGrath’s memory and legacy is celebrated annually at the Sydney Pink Test at the SCG.
Cricket fans on both sides of the Ashes unite for a great cause in the McGrath Foundation. Punters massively turn out in pink to celebrate the Sydney test’s most important day.
McGrath, who retired in 2007 after scoring 563 test wickets, said it was “very special” to see the stadium covered in pink.
“To think here we are, 18 pink Tests on, it’s growing all the time. Just to see everyone coming out turning up – you look around the SCG it’s awash in pink,” McGrath told reporters ahead of day 3 of the Ashes Test on Tuesday morning.
“It is very, very special, and that’s what I love about sport, cricket – that it brings people together.”
He made special mention of former cricketer Shane Warne, who died in 2022.
“I retired here 19 years ago, and I retired alongside two great mates in Shane Warne and Justin Langer,” McGrath said.
“And to think Warney’s not with us anymore, I guess that inspires us to live our life as well as we can because of our loved ones that aren’t with us anymore.”
He added Jane would be proud of what the foundation has achieved.
“I think I get up in the morning to do what we do at the foundation out of respect for our loved ones that are still here but especially out of respect for our loved ones who aren’t,” he said.
“I think about Jane, she’d be looking down, she’d be very proud, she’d be quite humble with what’s been achieved here.
“What’s been achieved at the foundation in that time’s been incredible because of that support, but we realise we’ve got a long way to go, and it’s only from the support of people round this incredible country of ours that we’ll get there.”
Tracy Bevan, ambassador at the foundation and Jane’s best friend, said she still walked through the SCG gates with Jane every year.
“Every time I come to the ground early, and I like to sit in the Ladies Stand on my own, where we used to watch Glenn and Michael (Bevan) play cricket,” Ms Bevan said.
“And every year I sit there and I just take in what’s happened in the last 12 months.”
She added she loved to remind McGrath that she was English, as was Jane and her cancer care nurse.
However, she vowed to go for Australia during the Test.
“I also like to remind Glenn that he’s got absolutely nothing named after him and it’s also a Pom who’s up there.”
More to come
https://thewest.com.au/lifestyle/jane-mcgrath-day-cricket-legend-glenn-mcgraths-moving-message-in-memory-of-wife-and-mate-shane-warne-c-21221029
