Australian cricketer Shane Warne, buried under sexual harassment allegations, made a surprise return to training in Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday.
Warne, who has kept out of the public eye since allegations began surfacing regarding his alleged sexual misconduct over a week ago, appeared at the Victorian state team practice at the invitation of coach David Hookes and bowled to some of his younger teammates in the nets.
But the 33-year-old champion leg spinner declined to speak afterwards to the media.
”It’s a private matter — I’ve got nothing more to say,” he said.
South African national Helen Cohen Alon has claimed she was offered R200 000 in a string of threatening phone calls and text messages by an associate of Warne to keep quiet about their relationship.
Hookes said Warne appeared ”happy” at the practice session and did not discuss the allegations.
”He was happy, he was upbeat. He did a bit of bowling himself, which I didn’t think he was going to do,” Hookes said.
”[The practice session] was a cricket environment so we just left it at cricket.”
Warne is midway through a one-year playing ban after testing positive to diuretics, although he is able to practise with his teammates.
Cohen Alon (45), plans to travel to Australia next week to take a polygraph test live during a Gold Coast radio station’s broadcast that she says will prove allegations that Warne bombarded her with lurid text messages after she met him during last year’s Australian tour of South Africa.
With leg spinner Stuart MacGill performing well for Australia in Warne’s absence, there has been speculation the country’s greatest Test wicket-taker will struggle to regain his place in the national team when his suspension expires next February.
The latest controversy in Warne’s eventful career follows an admission in August 2000 that he made lewd telephone calls to a nurse while playing county cricket in England. He subsequently lost the Australian Test team vice-captaincy over the incident.
Warne received support on Tuesday from Australian paceman Glenn McGrath.
”Shane’s a good friend of ours, as is Simone, his wife, and family, so you hate to see a good friend going through this,” McGrath said.
”We can just let them know that they’ve got our support and we’ll see how things go from there.” — Sapa-AFP