Shane Warne's close friend says the late cricketer would have a 'tear in his eye' over his kids Brooke and Jackson's touching tributes to him

A close friend and former teammate of Shane Warne has praised the cricketing icon's children Brooke and Jason for their Boxing Day tribute to their father.

Brooke, 27, and Jackson, 25, took to the pitch at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day to pay tribute to Shane during the test match between Australia and India.

The siblings were on hand to guide the crowd in the now-traditional Boxing Day hat flip to honour Shane, who suddenly of a heart attack in 2022. 

They also raised awareness for the Shane Warne Legacy, which offers free heart heath checks at the Boxing Day test - a fixture of the event for the past two years.

Shane's friend Darren Lehmann interviewed the siblings about the initiative and was left in awe by Brooke and Jackson's touching tribute to their father.

'Well done guys, extremely proud,' Darren said to Brooke and Jackson at the end of the interview on ABC Grandstand.

'Warnie would be down there with a tear in his eyes with something like that, with his kids running around.

'The legacy you've started, the Warne family would be extremely proud, so well done guys.'

During the interview, Brooke and Jackson spoke about how they deal with carrying on their father's legacy while still dealing with the grief of his loss.

'We've been brought up very well,' Brooke told co-host Corbin Middlemass.

'We've been brought up to be strong and tough and be respectful. 

'I think we are just very grateful that we have amazing parents and dad's taught us amazing life lessons and we take them every day.'

Meanwhile, Jackson said that seeing the way their father had reacted to adversity throughout his life taught them how to be resilient.

'We saw dad go through so much negative and positive and throughout his entire life always come out the other end stronger,' he said. 

'Obviously it is very sad that he isn't here but he was such a strong person that when we talk about him, we have to be strong.'

Jackson also told how continuing his father's memory through the Shane Warne Legacy had been 'powerful'.

'I think to be able to spread the message of heart health and to make sure that dad's memory stays alive whether through cricket or not is really powerful,' he went on.

'We just want to have as many families not get the same phone call we got.

'If we can have a tangible product like these machines that does check for your heart, it means that'll go down, and we just want to spread as much awareness for heart health as possible.'

Shane welcome three children with wife Simone Callaghan - Jackson, Brooke, and Summer, 22, before their divorce in 2005.

The 'King of Spin' tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 52 on March 4, 2022, while staying at a luxury villa on the Thailand holiday island of Koh Samui.

While the tragedy rocked the nation, his children Brooke, Jackson and Summer hope his death can inspire other Aussies to take action. 

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in November, Brooke revealed how she had been coping with the death of her sporting legend father.

Speaking at the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse, she told how she and her family are 'going okay' a few years on from the loss of her father.

'We're going okay, we're sticking together as a family and we've got a very good support base... and I've got a wonderful boyfriend of five years,' she said, referring to her partner Alex Heath.

Brooke also told Daily Mail Australia that she caught up with her father's best mate Chris Martin while he toured Down Under with his band Coldplay.

'We had a lovely time with Chris. It was fantastic,' she said of his most recent visit after attending one of the UK rocker's concerts at Marvel Stadium.

Coldplay honoured cricketer Shane during the show while Brooke and Jackson were in the sold-out crowd when Chris dedicated the band's hit song Sparks to the late leg spinner.