“Did not see the implications of offering such information”: When Shane Warne and Mark Waugh provided sensitive information to Indian bookmaker “John” in 1994

Shane Warne and Mark Waugh took a bribe from an Indian bookmaker in 1994 to provide them information about the match conditions.

Shane Warne is an Australian legend, but his life has been full of controversies and scandals. One such controversy came in 1994 when Australia were touring Sri Lanka. Shane Warne and Mark Waugh took bribes from an Indian bookmaker to provide him details about the game. They gave information regarding the pitch and match conditions.

It was said that the bookie was from Chennai, and his name was John. But according to Delhi police, the name of the Bookmaker was Mukesh. The Australian cricket board got to know about the incident in 1995, but they kept it away from the media for several years. When the news broke out in public, Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed fury at ACB’s coverup. Questions were asked in Parliament. Radio stations featured nothing else as callers vented their anger.

Shane Warne said he “did not see the implications”

The late Dean Jones was quoted by the Melbourne Age newspaper saying that, “There are ‘moles’ in every cricket team around the world ready to sell information to bookmakers.”

Warne later said that he did not know that the information provided will cause so much stir. “Did not see the implications of offering such information, which I thought to be mundane and exactly the same as any pre-match media interview,” Warne said.

It was exactly not match-fixing, but still, it was unethical to provide such important information. The ACB did not ban any of Warne or Mark Waugh, but they were fined heavily. Shane Warne and Mark Waugh took baits of $5,000 and $6,000, respectively, but they were fined $8000 and $10000.

In Pakistan, Salim Malik called it “the happiest day of my life”. “Their allegations destroyed my career at a time when I was at my peak,” Malik said about Shane Warne.

It is interesting to note that Shane Warne did allege that Salim Malik offered him a bribe for bowling poorly in the 1994 Karachi test.

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• Mark Waugh
• Shane Warne
• Shane Warne controversy