Shane Warne, the most flamboyant cricketer of his age and one of the greatest of all time, fled from the World Cup in South Africa yesterday pleading his innocence after a positive drug test that threatens to bring an inglorious end to a brilliant international career.
Warne tested positive in a random drug sample taken the day before a remarkable comeback match for Australia in a one-day international against England in Sydney on January 23.
Only 38 days earlier he had dislocated his shoulder while fielding off his own bowling, also in a one-day international against England, in Melbourne, leaving the Australian nation to fret over whether the man many rate to be the greatest bowler of all time would prove his fitness in time for a World Cup that was set to be his swansong.
Warne did recover, only to test positive for the diuretics, hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride, after a test by the Australian Cricket Board. Both are banned substances because of their use as masking agents to disguise steroid use. They are also used to promote weight loss.
News of Warne’s positive test is another blow to a tournament already mired in controversy over England’s fixture in Zimbabwe, which was called off yesterday, and concerns about the safety of matches in Kenya.
The leg-spinner is the biggest star in world cricket, and the shock that greeted his departure was comparable to that which greeted the positive drug tests against Diego Maradona at the 1994 football World Cup, and sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Olympic Games.
Obsession
At a press conference in Johannesburg, an hour before he had been due to take the field for Australia’s opening match of the tournament, Warne said he had innocently taken a tablet that gets rid of excess fluid in the body. He said he was unaware that it contained a prohibited substance.
In an era when professional cricketers routinely rehydrate before and during matches, Warne did not explain yesterday why he felt the need to dehydrate.
But losing weight has recently become an obsession for Warne. He has transformed his formerly tubby physique in the past year and stories about fast-food binges have been replaced by publicity about his latest faddish diets, one of which was based on cereals and baked beans. Sources close to Warne suggested he had been given the pill by his mother.
Warne looked wan as he faced the press yesterday morning, but the showmanship that has carried him through a string of damaging episodes during a remarkable 12-year career was still to the fore.
Speaking confidently, his head thrust high, Warne said he had been informed the previous day by the Australian sports drug agency that he had tested positive and had immediately informed ACB officials and told them he would return home ”for the good of the team”.
”I was shocked and devastated,” he said. ”I am shocked because I did not take any performance-enhancing drugs. I never have and I do not condone it in any way, shape or form.
”I am proud to be in the shape I am in at the moment and that is due to nothing other than hard work and looking after myself with diet.”
Warne will return to Melbourne, where a B sample will be tested, probably by the end of the week. A hearing of the ACB’s anti-doping committee will then decide his punishment.
The maximum penalty under Australian Cricket Board regulations is a two-year ban, but the ACB have previously taken extenuating circumstances into account, which leaves the door ajar for Warne to defy predictions that his career is over and return to South Africa in time for the World Cup climax.
Australian cricket has led the way in drug testing, introducing a system five years ago in a sport that had traditionally regarded drug abuse as a problem for other sports.
Attention will now focus on the nature of the drugs Warne consumed, and his motives for taking them. Crucial to the outcome of his hearing, and to his reputation, will be the question of whether he was attempting to mask steroid abuse.
Diuretics are among the five groups of substances banned in cricket, along with steroids, stimulants, narcotics and growth hormones. They have been abused in the past by jockeys and weightlifters to fall within weight restrictions. But they are also banned by international sporting bodies because they can mask performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids.
The diuretics found in Warne’s sample are normally prescribed for people with heart failure or high blood pressure.
”They are usually used in sport to mask something else,” said Dick Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency. ”That’s why they are on the banned list.
”I don’t care where he says he got them from, he should be punished. We want to get the cheats out. It’s not fair on the other people who obey the rules.”
The day after the injury, Sydney shoulder specialist Dr Mark Perko predicted: ”The only way Shane Warne is coming back in six weeks is if he comes back as a batsman.”
Yet 25 days later, he bowled eight overs and claimed one wicket for his state, Victoria.
Recover
Steroids help athletes train harder and recover from injury as they help the body gain in strength and muscle size, far beyond that which could be achieved by rigorous workouts and diet alone.
But traces of the drug can stay in the system for up to 12 weeks after taking them unless the athlete can flush them out by taking diuretics.
A full two-year-ban, at the age of 33, could force Warne into retirement, so ending a career that has been credited with reviving not just the mysterious art of leg-spin, but also the popularity of the game itself.
Warne’s artistry and daring, generally accompanied by a smile, have brought him 491 Test wickets, the second highest in history, and a further 291 wickets in one-day internationals.
Warne announced last month that he would retire from one-day cricket after the World Cup, with the intention of sparing his body from further damage — he had a major shoulder reconstruction five years ago — and so prolonging his Test career.
His last one-day international came a few days later in front of an adulatory home crowd in Melbourne. He left to the usual cheers and mock bows of supplication.
Yesterday, at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg, Australia overcame Pakistan in their opening World Cup tie without him, but it was impossible to escape his shadow.
A small group of raucous and largely inebriated supporters, dressed in Australian green and gold, occasionally chanted ”Warnie, Warnie”, but it was a hollow cry on a desperate day. Several were later ejected. – Guardian Unlimited