In a new revelation in the Shane Warne saga, drug authorities said the Australian leg spinner must have taken more than one banned diuretic tablet, contradicting the player's statement that he had taken just one pill, a newspaper report in Sydney said on Wednesday.
"Warne must have taken more than one tablet to get the effect he has registered," a source close to the investigation was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
However, the Australian Sports Drug Agency dismissed as "nonsense" the report.
Reacting to the report, ASDA chairman John Mendoza said the test could not determine if multiple tablets were present in the player's system.
"The assertion in the media this morning that there were multiple tablets because the levels were so high, is a nonsense," Mendoza told ABC radio.
"From an analytical point of view we wouldn't be able to determine whether he'd taken one, two or 22 tablets from that particular sample," he said.
Meanwhile, ACB spokesman Peter Young today confirmed the board had received the result of Warne's 'B' sample but refused to divulge it.
Warne, whose B sample also reportedly tested positive for the banned diuretic, had earlier stated that he took just one banned diuretic tablet.
The report also quoted World Anti-Doping Agency's chairman Dick Pound ridiculing Warne for his explanation that the tablet was given by his mother.
"Poisoned by mother? It is good, very good. It ranks up there with the one - I got it from the toilet seat," he said.
Pound also hit out at the Australian Cricket Board for its 'lenient' policy in a case like Warne's.
"I think Australia in general has to be very careful in a case like Warne's. There has been a long history of Australia accusing everyone, but your country doesn't have the same enthusiasm when your folks are involved."
The Warne scandal is becoming more complex and the latest findings may also lead to examination of past drugs tests
given by Warne during his international cricket career.
Warne is likely to face a two-year ban, but Simon Rofe, the Australian Olympic Committee's lawyer and a pioneer in the drafting of anti-doping documentation, said, "If Warne can establish he had an honest and reasonable belief he was not taking a diuretic, he can get off scot-free."
Australia's Test captain Steve Waugh said Warne's drug case was 'a tragedy unfolding', a report in the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.
"I'm not sure how it's going to end up. My thoughts of the whole thing are disappointing. I know Shane pretty well and I know there was nothing sinister about what he has done. He's taken a tablet that was banned and wouldn't have thought
twice about it when he took it," he said.
Meanwhile, the Australian coach John Buchanan and the team wants the case to be settled soon so the defending champions can return to a 15-member squad.
"We don't want to go through this tournament for too long with 14 players. We need a 15th player. If that's Shane, when the hearing is heard and he is exonerated and is ready to come back, then that's great. If there are hiccups with him, then it'll be a case of reconsidering that and getting that 15th player over as soon as possible," he said.
