Blond ignorance can be no defence - but full disclosure is

View from Oz

What a bunch of headliners are Australia's champion leg-spinners. Take Clarrie Grimmett. The little bloke they called The Gnome dared to challenge orthodoxy by bowling with his cap on. In the Fifties, Richie Benaud raised female fans' heart-rates by leaving his shirt unbuttoned nearly to the waist. Scandalous! And, because Bill O'Reilly aggressively chewed batsmen's ears when his Irish was up and his fortunes down, he was nicknamed The Tiger.

Now there's Shane Warne. How will cricket historians remember him: as The Greatest or The Goose? In 2050, will replays of That Ball be enough to eclipse gossip about That Tablet?

"Stupid" is the preferred verdict of most commentators on Warne's latest incursion into infamy. "Naïve" is how his cheer squad justifies anything from pocketing money from an Indian bookmaker to popping a prohibited pill. More street-smart cricket fans uttered phrases like "No kangaroos in the top paddock", which gave a certain edge to assessments of the muddled mind of the man who desperately wanted to be the hero of his last World Cup. To them, he's a joke: "Why did Warney take a pill to reduce excess fluid?" "Because he's got water on the brain." That's Aussie-speak for acting like a fool.

Warne's cheer squad trotted out the usual character-reference – "Oh, he's just a larrikin". That is to infer free-spirited cheekiness, but the Dictionary of Australian Words is less forgiving: "A cross between the Street Arab and the Hoodlum, with a dash of the Rough thrown in to improve the mixture".

Former players offered comfort. Ian Botham said Warney made an honest mistake and Simon O'Donnell said he was innocent until proven guilty. Given that it's not disputed Warne tested positive for a banned substance, could O'Donnell have meant guilty until proven ignorant? Warne's confession: "My mum gave me the tablet", raised snickers from the cynics and sighs of relief from the cheer squad: imagine if he'd said: "My mum spiked my drink".

Tim May, boss of the Australian Cricketers' Association, announced: "The clear intention of the anti-doping policy is to catch those cricketers who use performance-enhancing drugs. As such we're hopeful of a reasonable outcome for Shane." And then this, from the Australian captain, Ricky Ponting: "I don't think he's been completely ruled out of the World Cup just yet and we're hoping that he will be back with us very soon." The defence is implying that Warne is getting the rough end of the pineapple.

Can Warne clear his name? Sports-medicine experts find it incredible he took a fluid-reducing pill before a match when the accepted practice is to increase fluid intake. But the worst damage being done to Warne is the predictable speculation that he took the diuretic one-off to mask some form of illegal treatment that had hastened his recovery from the serious bowling-shoulder dislocation.

It should be simple enough for Warne's defence team to discredit that theory when they front the drug tribunal. All they have to do is call on his doctor and physio-therapist to divulge publicly the precise details of all the treatment he received for his injury – days, times, places and any drugs prescribed. And, if he was being treated exclusively by the Australian Cricket Board medicos, all parties would surely waive patient-doctor confident-iality in the best interests of two reputations – Warne's, and the game in Australia.

Without Warne the Australian bowling is less inventive, less confronting. Brad Hogg cannot ad lib or maintain pressure like Warne. Any bowling plans featuring Warne for specific opposing batsmen will have to be revisited, but bear in mind his leg-spin was always very much secondary to the main gameplan. It's the fast men who are best suited by South African conditions, so the Australian attack remains intimidating. Against Pakistan, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee targeted dangerman Inzamam-ul-Haq with a chilling mix of pace, bounce and swing that soon bent his spirit. Others will be asked to pass a similar test.

The overdue inspirational batting of Andrew Symonds created tougher competition in the soft middle-order, and that will be further strengthened by the return of Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan. It's possible Symonds' previous flat batting form might have been a consequence of the selectors defining him as an all-rounder, confusing his focus. Nor was he helped by the constant clamour for Steve Waugh to be chosen ahead of him.

Waugh made 211 the other day but remains coy about his availability for the Caribbean tour in April, a fine example of cricket brinkmanship. Waugh hasn't said as much, but he's awaiting the World Cup result. If Australia retain the cup it's hard to see the victorious captain, Ricky Ponting, not being offered the job for Test cricket. Waugh could hardly play on in those circumstances.