SYDNEY, Australia, 27 June 2005 — Cricketer Shane Warne and his wife, Simone, have separated in the wake of the latest sex scandal involving the Australian legspin bowler.
The pair announced the separation, after almost 10 years of marriage, in a statement released late Saturday.
Australian newspapers speculated that the announcement pre-empted new revelations of Warne’s extramarital affair expected to be published in a weekend British tabloid.
“It is with regret that we inform you that we have decided to separate,” the Warnes said in a joint statement. “We remain best of friends and we will both continue to be there for our three beautiful children.”
Australian newspapers carried the announcement prominently.
Brisbane’s The Sunday Mail had a photograph of the couple under the front-page headline: “Warne and wife split. Threat of new lurid revelations.”
Media catalogued the controversies which have plagued Warne, dubbed cricket’s bad boy, including previous sex scandals, a 12-month ban for a doping violation and allegations that he accepted money from an Indian gambler in exchange for pitch and weather details at matches.
Warne and his family has been living in Southampton, England, while Warne leads Hampshire in the county cricket competition. Warneis due to join Australia’s test squad for the Ashes series against England starting next month.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said the separation was “awful news” for the Warne family.
“There’s no doubt that everyone in our squad will be in touch with Shane at some stage,” Ponting was quoted saying after Saturday’s 10-wicket win over Bangladesh at Manchester. “It’s obviously going to be a tough thing for Shane to deal with and cope with but hopefully he can do that as well as he can leading into the test matches.”
Britain’s Sunday Mirror sparked the latest episode, reporting that Warne begged a 25-year-old student for sex after a night out in London with her and one of his Hampshire teammates.
Warne, 35, holds the record for most wickets in Test cricket, with 583 wickets in 123 matches. He’s well clear of second-place Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka, who has 532 wickets.
Former Indian Test Star Dies at 57
In New Delhi, former India international cricketer Eknath Solkar, who was known for his outstanding close-in fielding, died in Mumbai after a heart attack aged 57 yesterday, his family announced.
Solkar played 27 Tests in the late 1960s and early 70s as a left-handed all-rounder, helped the famed spin quartet of the era rout opposing teams with his valuable support in the field.
Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar and Srinivas Venkatraghavan almost always had Solkar fielding close to the bat, most often at short-leg or forward short-leg.
Solkar made 1,068 runs and took 27 wickets with his seam bowling apart from grabbing 53 catches in Tests. He also played seven one-dayers.
