Captain Warne plays straight (10 January 1999)

10 January 1999

Captain Warne plays straight

By Paul Newman

SHANE WARNE was back in familiar surroundings yesterday, holding court at the Gabba with aplomb, rather than appearing at a Pakistani version of one and preparing to cap a remarkable week by leading Australia against England today.

Even by Warne's extraordinary standards this has been the most eventful of two days. On Friday he looked nervous and apprehensive as he gave evidence to the Pakistan Cricket Board's inquiry into match-fixing along with Mark Waugh; Court One of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal building in King Street, Melbourne, providing an almost surreal setting for the latest instalment of one of cricket's murkiest episodes.

By yesterday the spring was back in Warne's step here in Brisbane as he strode on to the Gabba to face yet another media conference; confidence enhanced by the backing of his colleagues at an earlier Australian team meeting and ready to embark on a job which, they said, would never be his following revelations that he accepted money from an illegal Indian bookmaker and passed on information on matches, including three involving England on their 1994-95 Ashes tour. Three weeks after the storm broke Shane Warne is Australia's one-day captain - at least while Steve Waugh is injured,

"My whole life's been a soap opera since I was 15 or 16," said Warne as he tossed a cricket ball from one hand to the other and rotated his rebuilt shoulder. "Back then I would get in trouble and end up with six of the best, and I've had ups and downs throughout my international career. I've made my mistakes, but there have been a lot more ups than downs and as you can see I'm still smiling.

"The last couple of days have been pretty tough. I was anxious because I didn't know what to expect in Melbourne, but I don't think you can get in trouble if you tell the truth and that's all I've done throughout this. I repeat again, I've never been involved in bribery. I was just a bit naive and I've been unhappy about how what I did has been mixed up with match-fixing by some people."

And all this at a time when Warne has been making his return to the Australian side, a respectable but hardly spectacular performance in the Sydney Test being completely forgotten in the furore of the bookmaker saga and his promotion to the helm. One would think that Warne has enough on his plate trying to regain form and fitness without a myriad of other considerations, and England's job today in the opening match of the Carlton and United Series was to take advantage of an unusally unsettled Australian side.

Warne will not concur. "Mate, all this has spurred me on," he said. "I know some people said I shouldn't be captain but I've always had my detractors and I'll just get on with my life the way I always have. They seem to forget when all this happened. We are talking about Sri Lanka in 1994 before anyone in cricket had heard anything about bribery and bookmakers and I didn't think anything of accepting a gift."

What theatre, though, Friday's hearing was, a draped Pakistani flag and a picture of the country's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, at the courtroom creating an alien environment on home soil for Warne and Waugh as they were questioned by Pakistan Cricket Board representatives and a lawyer representing Salim Malik.

Those present heard how Waugh had had around 10 conversations with an Indian bookmaker known only as 'John' and introduced him to Warne at a casino in Colombo in 1994, the 'gift' of US$5,000 to Warne and the 'business transaction' of US$6,000 to Waugh being followed by the alleged approach from Malik to fix the outcome of Australian matches in Pakistan.

Then followed a cover-up which does little for the reputations of the Australian Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council before the inevitable revelations and subsequent inquiry that could lead to criminal charges against three prominent Pakistan players.

The Australians now hope they have heard the last of the affair; their selectors, prominently Allan Border, deciding that Warne and Waugh's 'crime' was not serious enough to stop them becoming captain and vice-captain of their country after all.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)