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| August 9, 2003 | Saturday | Jumadi-us-Sani 10, 1424 |
Cheat Warne tells WADA to mind their own business
MELBOURNE, Aug 8: Shane Warne told the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to mind their own business on Friday as debate continued over the issue of allowing the Australia leg spinner to play in charity matches while serving a doping ban.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s got nothing to do with these guys,” Warne said in an interview aired on Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio.
“I’m an employee of the Australian Cricket Board and both the ACB (now called Cricket Australia) and us have come to a decision.
“I’ve abided by their rules and had an arbitration meeting and they said I can play in charity games, I can train with the team, I can do all those things.”
Warne, the second highest wicket-taker in Tests with 491 victims, was banned for 12 months after testing positive for diuretics in February.
Cricket Australia (CA), the national board, had said the 33-year-old should not be allowed to play any cricket.
But last month it released a joint statement with the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), the players’ representative body, announcing that an independent arbitrator had cleared the way for Warne to play in charity matches.
WADA chief executive David Howman told The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday: “It is not a ban if he is training or playing. I find this ruling particularly bizarre because it is out of character with Australia’s strong anti-doping stance.”
ACA chief executive Tim May the arbitration was not simply about Warne but the wider issue of whether CA had the power under its anti-doping policy to ban a player from charity matches.
“It has been proven - it does not,” May said.
Warne’s brother and manager Jason Warne said Australia’s leading wicket-taker would not be taking part in a charity match with England club Lashings later this month.
“He won’t be over there for that (game on Aug 18),” Jason Warne told Reuters on Friday.
“We’ve had a couple of people from different countries have rung us about Shane playing in charity games but we haven’t agreed to play in any at this stage.
“There has been a lot of stuff in the media ... It’s been a little bit disappointing, people coming out and making their comments and a lot of them ill-informed, but you just sort of go with it I guess.”
Warne, one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the 20th century, was booked for charity appearances in Australia and England in the coming months before resuming his role as a television commentator for Australia’s home series against Zimbabwe in October, his manager said.—Reuters
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