Shane Warne has been told to grow up, with the top bowler described as potentially the biggest threat to Australia's Ashes defence following tabloid tales of sexual indiscretions and the break-up of his marriage.
Australian media rounded on the spinner on Tuesday and even conservative Christian politicians joined in, saying cricket officials were partly to blame for not doing enough to help their troubled star player.
In a biting analysis, journalist Malcolm Conn said after covering Warne's career for the past 13 years that the world record wicket-taker's "failure to accept responsibility, his vanity, insecurity and fragile ego have made him a liability".
"He is loved and admired by most of his team mates for his gregarious nature off the field and phenomenal achievements on it, but the distraction and destruction of Cyclone Shane may yet prove Australia's greatest Ashes enemy," Conn wrote in the Australian newspaper.
"He is always the victim. Cricket's most successful bowler believes he is constantly attacked by dark forces summoned to persecute him," he said.
- Special: Shane's Shenanigans
Last week, 35-year-old Warne announced his marriage to wife Simone was over. They have three children.
SEX ALLEGATIONS
Warne's recent autobiography should have been titled "Whatever It Was, It Wasn't My Fault", Conn suggested.
Other newspapers attacked Warne for the same failing.
"Everyone's fault but mine says Warne -- again," Sydney's Daily Telegraph said of Warne's likely response to British tabloid sex allegations this month.
"On previous form, Shane Warne's first interview after his marriage split will see him trot out the usual litany of half-apologies and thinly veiled excuses," it said.
South Australia state lawmaker Andrew Evans, who represents the Family First party, said on Monday that Cricket Australia officials were partly to blame.
"[Cricket Australia] should, having known his track record, ensured that he got counselling on a regular basis," he said.
The Sydney Morning Herald's Peter Roebuck described Warne as "a cricketing genius" who wanted the best of both worlds, a man with "the nerve of a bullfighter and the hide of an ox".
"Warne has been a fool. He has saved his worst for England, a land burdened with puritanical and prurient newspapers," he said.
"He might as well have cut himself and gone out to swim amongst the sharks."
