MELBOURNE, Feb 21: The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) hearing into Shane Warne’s positive drug test was adjourned on Friday with the three person panel resuming deliberations on Saturday.

Warne faces up to a two-year ban for taking a banned diuretic in January. A two-year ban would effectively end the controversial 33-year-old’s international career.

ACB spokesman Peter Young said that after seven hours of evidence from seven witnesses, two for Warne and five from the ACB anti-doping committee, it was decided to adjourn.

“All I know is we will be back here at 11.00am (0100 GMT) and hopefully we will have a determination then,” Young told reporters outside the hearing in Melbourne.

Warne, along with his mother, father, wife and brother, drove away from the hearing without talking to the media.

Warne has said he did not know the fluid-reducing tablet given to him by his mother, Brigitte, contained a banned drug. But he has yet to explain why he took the tablet.

ACB’s Young did not say whether Warne’s mother gave evidence.

One of Wisden’s five cricketers of the 20th century, Warne withdrew from the World Cup in South Africa last week after testing positive for a banned diuretic.

Australia’s World Cup squad in South Africa sent Warne a good luck message before the hearing.

“We wrote him a letter today and it had a few comments from each of the lads on it,” captain Ricky Ponting said after the world champions’ 75-run win over Holland on Thursday.

“We had faxed it back to him wishing him well for what he has got coming up. It has been a tough time for him but he has the full support of all his team mates here and, I’m sure, everyone he has played with in Australia.”

The ACB has said it would seek Warne’s reinstatement in the World Cup squad if he was exonerated, but they have also applied to replace him if necessary.—Reuters