And I'm starting to get pretty fed up with Shane Warne too. Here's his statement after being banned the other day.

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm absolutely devastated and very upset at the committee's decision in suspending me for 12months and I will appeal.

Understandable, of course. I don't think he'll get off on appeal, but if he has the legal right to pursue it then he's quite right to. But:

I feel that I'm a victim of the anti-doping hysteria. I also want to repeat: I have never taken any performance enhancing drugs and I never will.

Uh, Shane, mate, I don't recall anyone saying that you did. The only reference to performance-enhancing drugs I read in this whole debacle of yours was that diuretics can mask them, which is why diuretics are banned. I don't recall anyone accusing you of actually taking steroids or anything like that. And:

My shoulder comeback was exactly as my surgeon and physio predicted. I'm proud of the dedication I've shown in my rehabilitation and fitness regime over the past 12 months. The tablet I took on the 21st of January was a fluid tablet. I did not know it as a diuretic. I knew it as a fluid tablet.
I feel that a 12-month suspension is a very harsh penalty for not checking what I took with anyone.

With those words, poor Shane just condemns himself as an idiot out of his own mouth. THAT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT, SHANE. You DIDN'T check the tablet was OK. You SHOULD have done, according to the RULES. Maybe it is a harsh penalty, but it's in the RULES, and you got off LIGHTER THAN YOU COULD HAVE DONE anyway. And what's this "I only knew it was a fluid tablet, not a diuretic", eh? You didn't realise there was NO DIFFERENCE between the two? Idiot.

posted by James Russell | 4:31 PM