Cricket's greatest legspinner Shane Warne has taken an unwanted hat trick in the wake of his positive drug test at the World Cup in South Africa.
The 33-year-old Australian Test great, who completed a Test hat-trick against England in the 1994-95 Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, now has annexed a trio of sporting scandals -- corruption, sex and now drugs.
Critics have cited Warne's dealings with illegal bookmakers, a sex scandal in Britain where he was accused of bombarding a young nurse with suggestive phone
messages and a general air of arrogance as evidence the bowler had "more flaws than the Empire State Building".
He was scheduled to return to Melbourne late yesterday after he tested positive for a banned diuretic after a test by the Australian Sports Drugs Agency (ADSA) before the team flew to South Africa earlier this month.
Under the Australian Cricket Board's anti-doping policy, Warne could either a three-month ban or a two-year ban when the anti-doping panel meets this week.
"Devastated" ran the page one headline on Sydney's Daily
Telegraph, with The Australian newspaper concentrating on Warne's declaration "I'm no drug cheat."
The Australian labelled Warne the "stupid spinner," after he was sent home from the tournament in South Africa on Tuesday following revelations he had tested positive for a banned diuretic drug in Sydney last month.
Prime Minister John Howard took time out from a series of
international crisis meetings on Iraq to express his sympathy for Warne and urge cricket authorities to deal with him fairly.
"He is a great Australian cricketer. My hope is he'll be back playing for Australia before long," Howard said in New York.
Warne's family in Melbourne also spoke of their distress, with a source close to the family saying the bowler had taken a pill given to him by his mother in circumstances that were "totally innocent."
But there was little sympathy for Warne among newspaper commentators and radio talkback callers following the latest in a string of scandals that have tarnished the reputation of the man hailed as the greatest spin bowler of all time.
"When he dislocated his shoulder, Shane Warne must have damaged brain cells as well.
"What else will explain the numbingly dumb decision by one of the greatest cricketers in history to pop a diuretic?" Peter Jenkins asked in the Daily Telegraph.
"[Cricket] would suffer dreadfully if [his career ended] in this hasty and unhappy way.
"But he took the diuretic and now he must take the medicine," Greg Baum wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but