What followed was lewd phone calls to a 22-year old British nurse, which resulted in him being stripped of the Australian vice-captaincy. Playing county cricket in England for Hampshire, Warne left several obscene messages on the mobile phone of the young woman whom he had met in a nightclub.

On June 16, 2000, Warne admitted his mistake: "It was probably the wrong thing to do, but I thought it was a private matter, I didn't think it was going to become public, and now that it has become public I suppose it's a mistake.

"If it had stayed private then it wasn't a mistake. She was talking dirty to me on the phone and I reciprocated... she was reciprocating and laughing with her friends about it, but now she's decided to come public with it all and just try to crucify me."

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