SYDNEY, 26 February 2003 — Shane Warne yesterday admitted he had first taken the banned diuretic which earned him a 12-month ban from cricket in December last year — to get rid of an alcohol-induced double chin. Warne said he had taken another fluid tablet given to him by his mother, Brigitte, in early December, before his shoulder injury and more than a month before taking the banned diuretic which threatens to end his career. The high-profile Australian leg-spinner said a previous drug test had shown up small traces of similar substances to those which had emerged in the Jan. 22 sample, for which he was called before an anti-doping panel last Saturday. Warne said the earlier fluid tablet was taken for the sake of appearance and before his shoulder injury, proving he was not a drug cheat who had taken diuretics to mask other drugs to speed his recovery. “I was (drug) tested on Dec. 12 which was negative. This was before the injury — I was injured on the 15th (December),” Warne told Channel Nine. “It has since come up at the hearing that there were small traces of the same ingredients that I was tested positive for in January. I admitted to the hearing that I had taken a tablet in early December.

Streak: Olonga Still Part

of Zimbabwe’s Plans

BULAWAYO — Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak insisted yesterday that Henry Olonga has not been dropped from the World Cup team because of his black armband protest. Olonga, who was sacked by his club last week, has not played in the tournament since the first match against Namibia, while fellow protester Andy Flower has kept his place in the team. “Henry’s omission has nothing to do with his protest or politics,” said Streak whose team lost to Australia by seven wickets in Bulawayo on Monday. “We needed to have more depth in our batting, hence the inclusion of Andy Blignaut ahead of Olonga. It was as simple as that — nothing else.” Streak is the captain of an unsteady Zimbabwe ship. Both Olonga and Flower were warned by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) on Sunday that they would be dropped from the squad if they continued their anti-Robert Mugabe protest. A few British newspapers reported that some Zimbabwe players had threatened not to play against Australia if Flower was dropped. “It is their (Olonga and Flower) personal decision if they want to protest but it has not been a distraction for us,” Streak said.

If Bangladesh Can Play Tests,

So Can We: Kenya Coach

JOHANNESBURG — Kenya’s cricket coach Sandeep Patil yesterday insisted his team was ready to step into the Test arena after producing their second giant-killing feat in the World Cup. Kenya, who upset the West Indies in the 1996 edition of cricket’s showpiece, stunned Sri Lanka by 53 runs at home in Nairobi on Monday to throw open the race for the Super Sixes. Patil, a former Indian Test batsman who has coached Kenya for the last five years, said the victory indicated his team was maturing to join the big league as the 11th Test-playing nation. “I think we are getting there,” Patil told AFP ahead of Saturday’s game against Bangladesh at the Wanderers here. “To tell you the truth, if Bangladesh can play Test cricket, there is no reason why we can’t. “I think we are as good as them, if not better. Our time will come.” Bangladesh, who were granted Test status in 2000, have been clearly out of their depth in the big league and many critics have questioned their elevation. The tiny South Asian nation has lost 16 of the 17 Tests it has played, 11 of them by an innings. The only escape was at home when rain denied Zimbabwe certain victory.

S. Africa Still Agonizes Over

the Run That Got Away

JOHANNESBURG — More than 9,000 runs have been scored at the 2003 cricket World Cup but for South Africans every one of them pales into insignificance when conversations turn to ‘The Run’. The country still seems to be traumatized by the memory of that four-year-old, incomplete 22 yards, the run that got away and cost the team a place in the 1999 World Cup final in England. The mid-wicket mix-up between Lance Klusener and Allan Donald at Edgbaston, leading to a semifinal tie with Australia, appears to bubble back to the surface of the collective South African consciousness on an almost daily basis. The newspapers were back at Edgbaston over the weekend. “It’s as if there’s a national psyche hell-bent on searching for that one run,” the Sunday Times said. The incident has been turned into “a form of self-flagellation”. The whipping has intensified in recent weeks, after South Africa’s poor start to the 2003 tournament.