Australian media slate Warne

Australia's media, tired of yet another Shane Warne incident, are signalling that they've had enough - their message suggests that it's time to lower the boom on Warne. And even some team-mates are alleged to be concerned.

The latest scandal involving lewd text messages allegedly sent to a South African divorcee, and mother of three, has Australia's media united in the view that they are tired of Warne's larrikin antics.

Leading the way has been Mike Hedge for AAP. He wrote that it must surely be time for Cricket Australia to acknowledge that the world's best team could do without the world's best legspinner.

"Yet again it seems Warne has allowed his unique combination of arrogance, stupidity, naivety and immaturity to get the better of him," Hedge wrote. "Even if he didn't bombard a South African woman with suggestive messages - and he hasn't yet said he didn't - Warne's record is so damaged that he needs to be cut loose."

Greg Baum, a widely respected cricket journalist from The Age in Melbourne - Warne's home town - said the latest incident was "a tatty tale of decline". He fired shots at Warne, and also at the television company which employs him as a commentator while he's suspended for using drugs on the banned list.

"Channel Nine reports on Warne's indiscretions while continuing to employ him - as a colleague drily notes - as the highest-paid cricket reporter in Australia. Warne bitches about media intrusion on his private life, while making a fistful of money working in media. Not even when his wrong 'un is working can Warne have it both ways," he wrote.

"Warne is not a bad bloke on the terms on which most people meet him, but that is not enough. Reputable sources say his Australian team-mates are tiring of escapades; after all, what tarnishes him also tarnishes them. Believe it or not, most care about the team's reputation. And Stuart MacGill keeps taking wickets."

Sydney Morning Herald writer Richard Hinds said: "In an age when the human fallibility of sporting heroes is exposed with depressing regularity, another Warne scandal comes as little surprise. What seems staggering is that Warne would be so reckless - and, yes, stupid - as to repeat the phone-message offence that last time cost him the Test vice-captaincy.

"One leading sports psychologist refers to the condition where high-profile athletes fail to learn from past mistakes as the 'pedestal complex'. Surrounded by doting officials and smitten fans, they fail to see how normal rules of behaviour can apply to them."

In the Australian, author Roland Perry noted: "If this latest allegation is true, someone should tell Warne to pull his head in, drastically improve his behaviour towards women and then surgically remove his mobile phone. If he were left with letters to write, he wouldn't bother. Trouble is, no one will counsel him. His employers, Cricket Australia, the state team and Nine, either haven't the nerve, or the inclination. Cricket Australia is staying out of it. None of our business, we are told. But it is.

"Nine thrives on the controversies. In 2000 they were euphoric over the messy drama involving the English nurse, who received dirty phone messages. Mike Monroe on A Current Affair interviewed her. Then Warne - under contract - was forced to come on the same show, humble and defend himself. Nine's ratings were terrific. Just watch how they handle this latest allegation."

Andrew Ramsey wrote in the Australian: "It became apparent to many close to Australia's World Cup success in South Africa last year that the level of camaraderie and spirit among the players was heightened when Warne departed the tournament in the wake of the scandal over his taking a banned diuretic.

"None deny Warne's undisputed genius with a cricket ball, but his propensity for erratic mood swings and his ability to create unwanted media storms have created a sharp edge to the intra-team harmony."

While the critics sharpened their pencils, the woman at the epicentre of the storm - Helen Cohen Alon - urged Warne to take a lie-detector test. "He's a fantastic guy, there's nothing wrong with him," she said, before adding the proviso, "it's just that you cannot get away with things that you try and do to a woman all the time." It might take more than a lie-detector test for that to penetrate through to Warne's inner consciousness.