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Change Your Life! |
Nurse alleges, Warne gave her hotel room key |
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News |
June 16, 2000
SYDNEY (AP) - A British nurse who claimed Australian cricketer Shane Warne harassed her by leaving "very explicit" messages on her telephone answering machine has said she regrets sparking a tabloid sex scandal.
Donna Wright, 22, described the Australian spin bowler as "arrogant" after he allegedly approached her in a Leicester nightclub and gave her his hotel room key.
But she said she was "silly" for letting her friends hear the messages.
"Word got out" and the London tabloid Daily Mirror newspaper had "hounded" her for the tape recordings before publishing a report last Saturday, she said.
In an interview on Channel Nine program "A Current Affair," televised Thursday in Australia, Wright denied she had been paid by the Mirror to expose Warne, who is married with two children.
A donation to the children's ward of a hospital would be made in lieu of payment, she said.
Wright said she would accept an apology from Warne but added: "I don't think he's got it in him to say sorry."
Warne, Australia's most prolific test wicket-taker, is on a short-term contract with Hampshire in the English county cricket competition.
He has refused to comment on the matter. Australian Cricket Board chief executive Malcolm Speed ruled out disciplinary action after speaking with Warne, the Australian vice-captain, by telephone.
Wright alleged Warne approached her while she was on the dance floor and pushed the hotel key into her pocket, telling her that his contact details were on the back.
She said she sent Warne a text message the following day in a bid to return the key. He made constant phonecalls in response, leaving "very, very explicit" messages on her answering machine on May 31, she said.
Asked why she contacted him at all, Wright said: "I don't know what I was thinking."
"I'm a person who doesn't like confrontation but it's silly of me now, looking back, I should have given (the key) back" immediately, she added.
Wright, who has a four-year-old daughter, said although she was almost certain it was Warne on the tapes, she admitted she could not be 100 percent sure.
Scandals have plagued Warne's career. He ran into trouble on a tour of New Zealand earlier this year when he was accused of swearing at a teen-age boy during a limited-overs international in Wellington. Warne was annoyed when the youth took a photograph of him smoking on the players' balcony during a rain delay.
Warne admitted in 1994 that he accepted U.S. dlrs 4,500 from a ookmaker to give information on weather and pitch conditions. He was fined U.S. dlrs 6,000 for the incident, along with teammate Mark Waugh.
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