After diet-pill ban Googly Guy is ‘fitter than ever’

Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne, with a population of 3.2 million people, likes to regard itself as the sporting capital of t...

Australia’s second-largest city Melbourne, with a population of 3.2 million people, likes to regard itself as the sporting capital of the world.

Home to Melbourne Cricket Ground, which hosts cricket Tests, Australian Rules (AFL) grand finals, rugby and soccer internationals, the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Victoria capital revels in its ability to draw crowds of 100,000 people to almost any sporting event. On Thursday, Royal Melbourne Golf Club hosts the first round of Australia’s biggest golf tournament of the year, the $1.54 million Heineken Classic.

The following day, the MCG will host the first game of the one-day finals cricket series between Australia and India.

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Naturally the local media have been focussing on the sporting celebrities associated with these two big events — yet a man who is taking part in neither is hogging many of the headlines.

Shane Warne, Australia’s leading wicket-taker completes a one-year doping ban on February 10. A spot in the pro-am for the Classic has put him firmly back in the public eye a week early.

Warne’s popularity and profile in Australia continue to grow despite his bouts of bad publicity for lewd telephone calls, bribery and doping scandals.

On Tuesday, Melbourne’s popular tabloid newspaper the Herald Sun ran a back-page heading “FITTER THAN EVER” with a large photograph of a grimacing Warne completing a stretching routine with his yoga instructor.

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“Warnie is ready to go…Seven days and counting,” the newspaper said.

Warne, 34, is Test cricket’s second-leading wicket-taker with 491 victims at an average of 25.71 in 91 matches.

One of Wisden’s five cricketers of the 20th century, the bottle-blond headline-maker has spent much of the past 12 months doing charity work, writing about himself and his local AFL team St Kilda in his regular Herald Sun newspaper column, and playing golf.

On Wednesday, Warne played in a pro-am the Heineken Classic with two-times British Open winner Greg Norman, two-times Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Damien Oliver and Australia’s leading basketballer and former Olympic team captain Andrew Gaze.

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Of course, the media wanted Warne most of all. Television news bulletins breathlessly revealed the solidly-built leg spinner had trimmed down to 85 kg in his bid to win selection for next month’s Test tour of Sri Lanka. The first of three Tests starts on March 8 in Galle, and Warne has been packing in eight fitness sessions a week, including yoga, boxing, swimming, bike riding, running and a strict diet.

Not for the first time, Warne has trotted out the line that he is feeling “probably fitter than I’ve ever been”.

(Reuters)

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