Warne faces text-message investigation

Shane Warne is under investigation by Cricket Australia for another text-message affair after a New Zealand newspaper reportedly had a source willing to sell the story for $30,000. The Sunday News said the alleged incident occurred during the second Test at Wellington.

"All I can say is that we are not in a position to speak about the issue tonight," Peter Young, Cricket Australia's general manager of public affairs, told the Sunday Age yesterday. "There is an apparent situation involving Shane Warne's private life. We will deal with the situation more tomorrow. Our singular focus at this stage is winning a Test match."

Andrew Scott-Howman, Warne's New Zealand lawyer, said in a letter that Warne could not confirm whether he sent the SMS. "Personal text messages sent between two parties are private and confidential in nature, and may not be published without the consent of those parties," he said.

Warne, who was banned for 12 months in 2003 for drugs use, was also targeted in the same year by Helen Cohen Alon, a South African mother who said she was harrassed by text messages. In 2000 Warne said he and Donna Wright, an English nurse, had conducted "dirty" phone calls but there were no harrassing notes.