The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Sydney

Cricket great Shane Warne's "catalogue of reckless conduct" cost him the Australian Test captaincy, an official history of the national cricket board has revealed.

Warne's failure to become Test captain is a glaring deficiency in an otherwise glittering career that included claiming a world record 708 Test wickets, reviving the art of leg-spin bowling and totally dominating opponents.

The book "Inside Story", whose authors Gideon Haigh and David Frith were given unrestricted access to Cricket Australia's archives, confirms that Warne never became captain due to a succession of off-field scandals.

The warts-and-all history cites the minutes of a board meeting in August 2000, which list the reasons for Warne's sacking as Test vice-captain in favour of Adam Gilchrist.

At the time, the media had just revealed Warne bombarded a British nurse with lewd text messages, prompting Warne to comment that he was "disappointed"-not with his behaviour but with the fact that it had become public.

Warne had also been fined for accepting money from an Indian bookmaker, clashed with two New Zealand youths who snapped him breaching a personal sponsorship deal by smoking and allegedly derided Test colleague Scott Muller.

The book says the Australian Cricket Board, as it was then known, always had doubts about Warne's propensity to attract controversy and his "airy" dismissal of the nurse incident seemed to confirm them.

"Taught a lesson," began the board's list of reasons for sacking Warne.

"Leadership brings other responsibilities," it continued. "Given opportunities and shown he can't (behave); not this one issue; history of incidents; catalogue of reckless conduct; responsibility to maintain public confidence."

The board gave Warne some reason for hope, concluding its list with the comment, "door not closed."

Then in January 2001, a stump camera caught Warne swearing at Zimbabwe's Stuart Carlisle during a one-day match in Sydney, but the leg-spinner refused to take any responsibility for his actions.