Melbourne, Feb 17: Disgraced cricketer Shane Warne might hire a psychologist to help him defend doping charges that forced him out of the World Cup in South Africa and threaten his career.
Warne tested positive to a diuretic in a random doping test on Jan. 22, on the eve of his international comeback from a dislocated shoulder and on the same day that he announced he'd retire from limited-overs cricket following the World Cup. The 33-year-old legspinner, Australia's leading wicket taker in tests and limited-overs cricket, said he took a diet pill given to him by his mother and that caused the doping case. He denies ever taking a performance-enhancing substance and says he's not a drug cheat.


He has lost more than 12 kilograms over the last two Australian summers and psychologists have said this could explain his oversight when it came to diet pills.


Warne will faces a two-year ban when he fronts an Australian Cricket Board anti-doping tribunal after the B sample from his initial doping test comes back from the Australian Sports Drug Agency. The result is likely to come back later Monday.


Consulting psychologist John Cheetham told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper that a person using diuretics to lose weight wouldn't always consider the drug's other purposes. "This is not uncommon. ... In the person's mind they would simply link the treatment to their preoccupation with weight reduction," Cheetham said.


Clinical psychologist Les Posen told the Herald Sun that a presentation of Warne's constant fight to lose weight could help explain his use of a banned substance.


"For all we know there may have been a great deal of pressure placed upon him over the years to change his shape and fitness," Posen said. "I'd be investigating his history of ongoing weight concerns . . . and arguing that this was an understandable attempt to get this battle under control."

Warne said the departure of long-time teammates Stephen and Mark Waugh from the Australian limited-overs lineup made him realize he needed to lose weight and increase his fitness to extend his international career Bureau Report