Australians turning against their top cricketer

By Sid Astbury Jul 4, 2005, 1:56 GMT

Sydney - Australians have had a bellyful of bad-boy bowler Shane Warne.

The world's leading Test wicket-taker, dumped this week by his long-suffering wife after yet another sex scandal, may lose his place on the national cricket team for bringing shame on the game.

In letters to newspapers and calls to talkback radio shows, even diehard sports fans have urged governing body Cricket Australia to say enough is enough and sack the serial philanderer and convicted drug cheat.

The issue of Warne's boorish behaviour has come to a head after British tabloids published a string of lewd telephone text messages that punctuated a series of steamy extra-marital affairs.

The ultimate thumbs-down came this week from sportswriters who for so long turned a blind eye to the wayward 35-year-old's loutish litany.

Malcolm Conn, writing in The Australian, argued that Warne had become a liability and could cost the national team its coming games against England. He wrote that "the distraction and destruction of Cyclone Shane may yet prove Australia's greatest Ashes enemy".

Taking up the same theme in The Sydney Morning Herald, Paul Sheehan declared public patience at an end.

"At some point in all this, after yet another lie is exposed, yet another tawdry text message published, yet another piece of irrefutable evidence of betrayal emerges, a tipping point has to be reached with Warne, an end to the big lie," Sheehan wrote. "He can rut with whomever he likes, but as a serial liar he should never again be allowed to debase the Australian colours by wearing them."

Cricket Australia is assessing the damage to its sporting franchise and weighing the future of its incorrigible spin king. It has disciplined Warne many times before, but Australia traditionally values victory over virtue, and sending off a proven on-field winner over off-field antics would be a first.

Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young would not respond to calls for Warne's sacking. "Clearly, we would prefer Shane Warne to be creating publicity for the game of cricket through his on-field performances" was all he would say.

Five years ago, Warne's penchant for explicit text messages to his lover-of-the-moment lost him the vice-captaincy of the national team. It was then just the latest sex scandal in a history of well publicized unfaithfulness that went back to 1993.

In 1994, Warne took 5,000 Australian dollars (3,850 U.S. dollars) from an Indian bookmaker for what he said was "pitch information". He was fined by Cricket Australia.

In 1999, Warne was photographed smoking despite pocketing 200,000 Australian dollars (154,000 U.S. dollars) to endorse a nicotine patch. The following year, Warne manhandled a New Zealand schoolboy who had snapped a picture of him puffing away while wearing the green-and-gold of the Australian team.

The career of the podgy, peroxide-blonde looked over in the lead up to the 2003 World Cup, when he tested positive for banned diuretics. He served a mandatory one-year ban from cricket for breaking its drugs code.

Things are turning against the world's most successful bowler. The Nine Network, which employs Warne as a cricket commentator, is considering ripping up his contract. Cricket Australia is under huge pressure to do the same.

Prime Minister John Howard, a cricket fan himself, has not yet commented on the tawdry Warne story. But the Family First party, which could use its member in the upper house Senate to guide through contentious government legislation, has urged action on Warne's public immorality.

Family First might have the casting vote with Cricket Australia and condemn Warne to finishing his playing days in country cricket in England.