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Change Your Life! |
Lewd messages on phone costs vice-captaincy |
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August 6, 2000
LONDON (AP) - Shane Warne thought he was dreaming when he was telephoned at 2 am to be told he had been stripped of the vice-captaincy of the Australian cricket team. Writing on Saturday in The Times, the leg spinner said he was hugely disappointed and hurt by the Australian Cricket Board's decision which follows newspaper revelations about Warne's off-field conduct. "It was at 2.15 in the morning when ACB chief executive Mal Speed rang me at the hotel in Derby to tell me I was no longer vice-captain of Australia," Warne wrote. "At that point I thought I must still be in a dream. "Of course it was a huge disappointment but I am determined to take it on the chin and keep giving everything I can to my country. "The selectors wanted me to continue as vice-captain, but they were overruled by the Australian Cricket Board. That is the most upsetting part of the whole business." The ACB's move came after Warne admitted he had left lewd messages on the answerphone of Donna Wright, a nurse he met in a Leicester nightclub two months ago. "I am only human and I would be lying if I said I was not hurt by the decision," Warne wrote. "Sometimes people forget that international sportsmen have feelings just like the bloke in the crowd." He said he would offer his support to the new vice-captain, Adam Gilchrist. "I have no problem at all with Adam Gilchrist. I wish him all the luck in the world and if he ever needs any help or advice, particularly in the early stages when he is learning the job, he only has to ask," Warne wrote. "When we meet up before the one-day games against South Africa in Melbourne this month I will make a point of shaking his hand and saying `all the best, mate'." |