A tournament already plagued with controversy was given another, historic twist today when it was announced that Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne had tested positive for banned substances and was being withdrawn from the squad. This is the first such instance at this level of cricket and can compare with Diego Maradona’s expulsion from the 1994 world cup or Ben Johnson’s disgrace in the 1988 Olympics. It’s no Harare: England can still go for appeal Cape Town: The ICC has cancelled England’s match against Zimbabwe in Harare on Thursday in a last-gasp bid to save the tournament from the threat of a match boycott. It said it would allow England a fresh appeal against the staging of the game, even though an earlier appeal, supposedly binding, had been thrown out last week. The issue will now go back to a committee for a second time. — Reuters Warne, one of Wisden’s five cricketers of the century, was due to be sent home, where his B sample will be tested. If that test is negative, there is a possibility that he may return but if found guilty could face a maximum ban of two years under ACB rules. The news broke without warning, as it were, and on the eve of Australia’s opening game of the 2003 tournament against Pakistan in defence of the title. The random test was taken on January 22 by the Australian Sports Drug Agency as part of its routine procedure and the leg-spinner tested positive for a diuretic masking agent. Warne (33) was informed of the result yesterday and in turn told the Australian Cricket Board. Apparently, he had already decided to quit the side. He is now to appear before the board’s anti-drug committee. The drug, a weight (or fluid) reducing tablet, is said not to be performance-enhancing. The ACB want to have a look at the report of the anti-doping committee before they comment on the decision. That is a typically safe reaction from the ACB, whose official line is always balanced on the side of caution for fear of overreaction. No official is going to say whether Warne is guilty or not. At the press conference where he publicly confirmed the news, Warne said: ‘‘I am shocked by the allegations as I would not knowingly take a substance which contained any form of drug.’’ He has just made a rapid recovery from a shoulder injury after it was first feared he might miss the World Cup. ‘‘I took a fluid reduction tablet.which I did not know contained a prohibited substance’’, Warne said. ‘‘The tablet actually dehydrates you and gets rid of any excess fluid in the body.’’ For Warne, the player of the 1999 final, this isn’t the happy ending he would have liked to a controversial career. He’d already announced that this woulk be his last international tournament. He was implicated in the match-fixing scandal, but protested his innocence when bookmaker M K Gupta conned him with financial inducements. He was fined in house by the Australian Cricket Board and the matter was tucked out of sight and forgotten.
