Melbourne: Disgraced spin bowler Shane Warne will receive up to A$ 15,000 ($ 9,000) as his share of prize money allocation even though he didn't bowl a ball in Australia's World Cup win. Warne was sent home on the morning of Australia's opening match against Pakistan after returning a positive drug test to a banned diuretic. He was subsequently banned from cricket for a year by an Australian Cricket Board (ACB) anti-doping panel in a case which damaged his reputation. Australia's greatest Test wicket-taker was in South Africa for 11 days and will reportedly collect the cash through a pro-rata system adopted by the players for the 55-day tournament. His allocation - believed to be between A$ 10,000 and 15,000 - has come under fire from Australian cricketing great Neil Harvey and is likely to anger large sections of the sporting public. ACB public affairs general manager Peter Young said the Australian team wanted the payment system and adopted it especially for the World Cup. Young said on Wednesday each of the Australian players were paid the same "day rate" for every day they took part in the successful cup campaign. But Warne's manager Jason Warne said his banned brother deserved his share of Australia's A$ 3.36 million ($ 2.01 million) windfall. "From my own point of view it's a tough one, but how far back do you go? Jason Warne said on Wednesday." "He's already being punished enough as it is, but do you go back and make it retrospective?" Warne said his brother's input into Australia's victory could not be quantified. But he said it was a "bit harsh" to strip Warne of his stake given his involvement in team planning and training and World Cup promotions. "He is already missing out on income for the next 12 months and you've got to draw the line somewhere," Jason Warne said. "The (anti-doping) committee drew the line in the sand when the suspension was started from February 10. You can only go by what's done and what the players decide. How can you say he didn't have any input into the games?" "He was there to help (spinner) Brad Hogg bowl in the nets and he was there for the structuring of the team plans which is an important part of it, so I suppose he has earned his stake in the money." "You can't shift back his suspension and ping him both ways. That's a bit harsh." Warne is not the only member of the squad to benefit despite playing no games. His replacement Nathan Hauritz will also profit immensely, as will fast bowler Nathan Bracken, who replaced the injured Jason Gillespie, who played four World Cup matches. Young said he could not say how much each player would receive. But 'The Daily Telegraph' newspaper reported on Wednesday that Hauritz would earn about A$ 270,000, Bracken about A$ 130,000 and Gillespie A$ 180,000.
Copyright AFP 2001
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