It was sombre yet reflective moment at Neil Bulger Oval as Radford College and Marist College lined up for a minute's silence during the colts competition semi-final and donned black armbands to remember the former Australian bowler.

Radford's Jake Smith delivered an over honouring Warne's signature delivery, inspired by the 52-year-old's sudden passing.

He has been a legspinner since he took up cricket and, despite being born around the same time the 708-Test wicket cricketer retired from internationals, he has watched highlights online to perfect it.

Radford cricket director and the colts coach Wally Wright coined the idea for his side, and approached Smith to deliver the first over in honour of Warne.

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Wright rearranged the side's bowling order to let the 16-year-old deliver an over in Warne's signature legspin against Marist.

"Shane Warne has meant a lot to cricket in this country," he said.

"For me personally, he was a hero and I was just thinking about the best way to honour him or give a tribute. And, obviously, Jake's a legspinner and the impact Warnie that had on legspin, so I just floated the idea with Jake prior to the game and said, 'I think this will be a fitting tribute'.

"Then fortunately Jake was keen to do that. We were wearing black armbands and did a minute of silence, too, but we thought for Warnie, go that step further because such was his impact.

"Most of them wouldn't have seen Warnie in his prime but yet, obviously he is such an icon that he's still such a big figure in the game. Everyone's still aware of him. With YouTube and the amount of highlights the kids watch, they would be well aware of how good he was. So I think it was just a sad day for cricket."

Warne died from a suspected heart attack on March 4 before his body was flown home from Thailand this week, ahead of his state funeral at the MCG on March 30.

Thousands of people around the world have paid tribute to the former cricketer and Smith said he was honoured to be a little part of that when his coach asked him.

"I thought it was a great initiative by Wally. It was something that wasn't expected and the whole team was really open to it," he said.

"When I was little, whenever I bowled, I just kind of flicked it out of my hand. Then I watched Warnie bowl when I was very little and then just watching highlights since then. I've just always been fascinated by him, he obviously had such a huge impact."

While Smith did not take any wickets during his over, and his side lost the match, he said it was important they paid respect to such an icon of the game. And provided an insight into what the next cricketing generation thought about his impact.

"Well, I think he brought a lot of popularity and excitement to the sport. He was just fantastic entertainer, as well as a fantastic cricketer, and that was something that I think a lot of people were drawn to," the ANU first grade cricketer said.

"I always watched it. I was very loud as a kid, so the only way my mum could kind of shut me up was to put me in front of the cricket. Then I just watched a lot of it and then started playing in the backyard, before I started playing at maybe eight."

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