Swim star challenges Warne's comeback nomination

Two high-profile Australian sportswomen have criticised Shane Warne's nomination for the Laureus world sports award because of his drugs ban. Warne is in line for the best comeback category, which also includes the England cricket team and the golfer John Daly in Portugal on Monday, for his return from the one-year suspension.

But Dawn Fraser, Australia's lone judge on the panel and an Olympic swimming gold medallist, said Warne didn't get her vote. "Shane doesn't deserve to be there," Fraser told The Australian. "I will not vote for anyone who has taken drugs or been banned for drugs." Warne was suspended in 2004 for taking a diuretic he claimed was given to him by his mother.

"How quickly we forget," Layne Beachley, a six-time world surfing champion who won last year's alternative sportswoman award, said. "They must be voting for him on his athletic pursuits as opposed to his personal endeavours. It is a difficult one."

However, Edwin Moses, the Laureus chairman, told the paper the drug Warne took was a dietary supplement for a weight problem and they knew about it when they voted for him. "It wasn't in the media's mind and in our eyes what I would consider being a cheat," he said.

Ian Botham also backed Warne and said it wasn't a performance-enhancing drug. "It was not used to cheat," he said. "His comeback was from a setback and it was deserving. His record is there in black and white and he is without doubt the best of his kind."