Shane Warne: In trouble again?

[RitchieColeRocks]

Ok I honestly don't believe the allegations are 100% correct, and most likely never will, but even if they were, SO WHAT.
He's a cricker, not a polition, or a child carer.
He's there to play cricket, what's his personal life got to do with it?

Anyway, just on another note, you'd have to be pretty innocent to think that no other sports stars act in that kind of way, manner, honestly it goes on everywhere.

[London Dave]

Not 100% correct?????...you are naive to say the least....imo, Warne would root anything with a heartbeat given the chance....feel sorry for his missus though, she should take him to the C.L.E.A.N.E.R.S.(preferably by use of text message, Shane should see the irony in that!)

How many times does this convicted drug cheat have to screw up before you figure out he's just a selfish leg spinner who can't control his hormones?

[Joe]

At first she was probably happy and then when things get slightly ugly she cries $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and accusations.
No sympathy for either of them.

[HAL]

What happened to her? And then?

[Donny]

Warne accuser faces extortion charges
Wisden CricInfo staff - August 17, 2003


Helen Cohen Alon, the 45-year-old woman at the centre of the latest Shane Warne scandal, is set to be sued on charges of extortion.


Gavin Varejes, an associate of Warne's, has levelled the charges after Cohen Alon claimed she had been bombarded with telephone calls and lewd text messages, including the revelation that Warne "often told her he was lying next to his wife thinking naughty thoughts".


Warne, who is currently serving a 12-month ban for failing a drugs test, has received support from his Test captain, Steve Waugh, who blamed his "enemies in the media" for kicking him when he was down.

"I don't know the full story, I'm sure you guys [media] don't know it either," said Waugh. "You've got to give the guy a fair chance and let him have his say and when he does that, respect what he says and then make a judgment from there. But I think a lot of people have made their judgment before they know the facts."

Waugh added he had sympathy for Warne and his family, after they had become embroiled in another controversy. "I am part of the cricket side and we have some loyalty to each other. He's human, he makes mistakes and I think he pays for his pretty heavily. I certainly support Shane and his family.

"It's a tough time, a lot of people are sort of kicking the boot in right now and a lot of his enemies in the media are having a crack at him. As a team-mate I feel sorry for him and what's happened, particularly his family."

[Donny]

I post the following article because it puts some of the 'Warney hysteria' into perspective.

I will add, however, that he's never attracted my admiration as a person. His on field behaviour has often made me cringe but his bowling is truly awesome and has never ceased to amaze me.
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Let Warne play ... on the field, that is
Wisden's Australian View by Chris Ryan - August 20, 2003

Which wild-eyed, world-famous, charismatic Australian bowling larrikin said this? "I don't try to be Joe Blow the superstud - it just happens." Or this? "I've taken out some real dolls, like beach beauties and models. They're the best." Which bowler bragged shamelessly about sheilas of "all shapes and sizes with just one thing in common - they wanted my body"?

Guilty on all counts was Jeff Thomson who, according to urban legend, struck fear into even more English girls' knickers than he did batsmen's hearts on the Ashes tour of 1975. Thomson's punishment was a snigger here, a chuckle there and to be branded a rebel, a lad. Twenty-eight years on and Shane Warne, Thommo's spiritual successor, faces exile for his excesses.

Switch on the radio and you would think Warne was the most evil, hated person in Australia, worse than the politicians who lie or the churchmen who prey. Open a newspaper and you risk concussion by columnists united in their outrage. Warne, they huff and puff, must either bow out in shame or be booted out in disgrace.

Now Warne is many things. He is a man out of his time, out of his depth and, so far as his wife Simone is concerned, out in the doghouse. Conceivably, under the present strain, he is out of his mind; certainly he has been out of order. None of which means he should be out of the team.

Two crucial differences separate Thomson and Warne. The first is to do with them: Thomson was single at the time, Warne is married. The second is about us.

As society has become more liberal Australia's social commentators and moral myth-makers have grown more pompous, more puritanical, and never more so than when the integrity of a cricketer - strewth, a cricketer of all people - is at stake. What was OK for Thommo would probably be OK for Rupert Murdoch or John Howard or Russell Crowe. But never, under any circumstances, for Shane Warne.

Our cricketers are expected to be whiter than their white flannels, cleaner in demeanour than any other public figures or prominent sportspeople. In the week before all hell broke loose in Warne's World a former rugby league star, Darrell Trindall, pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman in a Sydney bar. It stirred barely a murmur. That, apparently, is just what former rugby league stars do.

Warne, by contrast, has committed no actual crime. The jury is still out on the 16-year-old girl he allegedly tongue-kissed. The stripper from Melbourne and "hairy-backed sheila" from Johannesburg took their complaints to the media, not the police. Warne's great sin, say the pompous and puritanical, is to set a bad example to children.

Warne is guilty of that, no question, but many others have done much worse. When Greg Chappell ordered his brother to bowl underarm he introduced to youngsters the concept of winning at any cost. When Rodney Hogg kicked down his stumps, and when Dennis Lillee booted Javed Miandad, they legitimised violence as a form of protest. Ian Chappell showed children a thing or two about decorum by swearing at umpires and dropping his strides during Sheffield Shield games; Allan Border taught them petulance when he arrived late on the field one morning because his good pal, Geoff Marsh, had been left out. When Darren Lehmann yelled out an epithet preceded by "black" against Sri Lanka last summer he gave comfort to racists everywhere.

Lillee, Hogg and Greg Chappell have all made good livings as coaches. Ian Chappell is a distinguished commentator. Border is a national treasure. And Lehmann is still in the team. Warne deserves the same chance.

Among his multiple misdemeanours, firing off salacious text messages ranks somewhere in the middle: more damaging than being sprung smoking at an inopportune moment, but some distance behind consorting with John the Bookmaker and repeatedly telling the South African opener Andrew Hudson exactly where to go. It is true that in this celebrity age a player's off-field behaviour is relevant like never before. It is equally true that his on-field conduct remains far more likely to lose him friends and influence people.

Consider the furore that engulfed Glenn McGrath when he tongue-lashed and finger-bashed Ramnaresh Sarwan three months ago. Back then, the letters pages drowned in outrage. Now they're awash with jokes. McGrath's actions made tomorrow's Test cricketers more likely to crack under pressure. Warne has made more them more likely to crack gags.

Only among journalists - mostly non-cricket ones, interestingly - is the mood more hostile than humorous. They have set up camp outside Warne's home. They have sneaked sleazy photos of him puffing on a fag in his own backyard. Their ignorance has been exposed by their indignation - as if no cricketer ever shagged himself silly on tour back in the good old days - and compounded by their descriptions of Warne as a fading force, barely worth his spot anyway, what with Stuart MacGill taking wickets on autopilot.

MacGill is an excellent bowler with a big legbreak. Warne is a once-every-200-years freak. He rarely gets his wrong'un right and seldom lands his flipper. But instead of one standard legbreak he now has at least three: one that spins a bit, one that spins a lot, and another that keeps going and going and going. He mixes them up at will.

There's his stockpile of straight balls: the slider, zooter and toppie, one that drifts in, one that slopes out and another that doesn't budge at all. Then there's his hypnotic presence. He bluffs and blusters, grins and grimaces, flights and foxes. He doesn't so much take wickets as cajole them. And in his last dozen Tests he has cajoled 78 of them at 20.56, while averaging a Benaudesque 24 with the bat. Once he was in the same legspinning ballpark as Grimmett and O'Reilly. Now he is in a galaxy of his own.

Come February, after 12 months' resting an old shoulder and testing some new tricks, he might even be better still. In the meantime he should follow his mum's advice - something else he's good at - and keep his brain switched on and mobile turned off. And stop texting strange ladies.

"The man is a giant sleazy hamster with terrible hair," a female colleague e-mailed yesterday. Well, yes. Good reason, then, to stop playing the field - but to carry on playing on the field.

[The Prototype]

I still think it was all false from the start, the only thing that is keeping this doubtful is the fact she is willing to come to Australia. I am still waiting to know what her real reasons are for doing all this. She reckons it's not for money, or them reasons. So why bring it up? If he is "harrassing" her, then she should take him to court. And not bring all this up for no reason.

[Donny]

Government money talks in Warne dispute
Wisden CricInfo Staff - August 22, 2003

Responsibilities that Cricket Australia faces in the application of its anti-drug policy have been brought into focus by Government intervention on the Shane Warne training ruling and the possible future status of $Aus1.5million government funding to cricket.

Warne is on a 12-month suspension for use of a banned drug and is not allowed to play again until February 10 next year. However, he had been granted some leeway by Cricket Australia (CA) to train at club, state and international level.

A recent arbitration ruling also freed the way for him to play in charity matches during his ban - although the arbitrator said he was only dealing with the issue on the basis of the particular clause of the legislation from which the ban was applied to Warne.

However, the Government have told CA that Warne's training, while suspended under the Government's anti-doping policy, is unacceptable. The CA board are meeting today, and depending on the outcome of that meeting, CA is likely to look for urgent talks with the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and the Australian Cricketers' Association.

The ability of the Government, through the ASC, to force compliance to the national anti-doping policy, is the tag on funding received from the Government for development programs by CA.

James Sutherland, the CA chief executive, said their interpretation of the policy had been that in certain circumstances, as when a suspended player was giving rather than receiving help, as long as there was no material assistance in regard to travel, accommodation or provision of equipment then training with teams was acceptable.

"Cricket Australia, ACA and the ASC have the same starting point, which is a determination that there is no place for doping in cricket, but implementation of this ideal needs discussion," he said.

The Government stance has resulted in Warne's manager, his brother Jason, saying the advice was different to what they had received over the last few months, while ACA chief executive Tim May found it necessary to have Sutherland explain his publicly announced discomfort over Warne training with the national side.

[HAL]

What happened to been granted some leeway by Cricket Australia CA to train at club state and international level ?

[Donny]

Healy urges Warne not to give up
Wisden CricInfo staff - August 26, 2003


Ian Healy has urged Shane Warne not to retire, and to grit it out through the controversies that surround him and his mobile phone.

"I hope [Warne does not retire] because then he will be remembered solely for the last 12 months," said Healy, speaking to the AAP news agency. "He needs to clear his head, and the harder it gets for him the clearer his cricket focus will become, and hopefully he will give us two good years of cricket, whether it's for Victoria or Australia. Hopefully he can have a crack at being remembered for what cricketers will remember him for - his great skills."

Healy did say, though, that Warne might find it hard to get back into the national team. "You couldn't say he would come back and slot back into the team with the good form of Stuart MacGill. He might never get back in the Australian team. That doesn't bother me as long as he plays some good cricket for Victoria ... that will be enough."

[The Prototype]

I think this Warne thing has gone a little far, it's not like the whole world needs to know what he does, or who he does in his personal life.

[HAL]

Ummmm. . . Since when? What about it?