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Judgment day Warne suspended 12 months for using banned substancesPosted: Friday February 21, 2003 11:04 PMMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Cricket star Shane Warne was suspended for 12 months Saturday after an Australian Cricket Board anti-doping tribunal found him guilty of using banned substances. The suspension is retroactive to Feb. 10, the date Warne was notified by the Australian Sports Drug Agency of his positive test. He announced the following day that he tested positive Jan. 22 to the banned diuretics hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride. The 33-year-old Australian is prohibited from playing in any organized cricket match for one year, which means he won't return to the World Cup and will miss test series against the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. In addition to international matches, Warne is also ineligible to play for his home Victoria state or English county Hampshire. Warne, Australia's leading test and limited-overs bowler, has seven days to appeal the decision. The three-person tribunal, made up of judge Glen Williams, former test bowler Peter Taylor and Melbourne-based doctor Susan White, deliberated overnight after hearing from seven witnesses and reviewed submissions from Warne's lawyers during eight hours of proceedings Friday. Warne said he took the diet pill before attending a news conference where he announced he would retire from the limited-overs version of cricket after the World Cup. His mother, Brigitte, reportedly gave him the prescription medication so that he'd look his best for TV cameras. Warne lost about 26 pounds in 18 months, changed his diet and increased his exercise program so he could become only the second bowler to surpass 500 test wickets. He has 491 and needed 28 to surpass retired West Indies paceman Courtney Walsh as the leading test bowler of all time. Diuretics are banned by the International Cricket Council because they can be used to flush out traces of performing-enhancing drugs. Warne, who made a quick recovery from a dislocated shoulder in December, denies ever using performance-enhancing drugs. Off-field troubles have often followed Warne. He was stripped of the Australian vice-captaincy in August 2000 after a phone sex scandal with a British nurse. That followed another highly publicized incident in New Zealand when he tried to take a camera from a teenager who photographed him with a cigarette after he said he'd stopped smoking. In 1994, Warne and Mark Waugh admitted taking money from an Indian bookmaker for pitch and weather information during a tour of Sri Lanka. The pair was fined and reprimanded by the ACB. Warne had reconstructive surgery on his right shoulder in 1998 and slowly recovered before getting back onto the Australian squad that won the 1999 World Cup in England.
He has also had surgery on his right index finger, forcing him to miss tests after the World Cup.
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