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Fans turn thumbs down on Warne

Controversial Australian leg spinner Shane Warne should be dumped as vice-captain, say almost 90 per cent of sports fans who responded to a poll here.

They say Warne, Australia's champion 30-year-old leg-spinning bowler, should be stripped of his position as deputy to Steve Waugh because he admitted making sexually explicit phone calls to British nurse Donna Smith, 22.

Warne, married with two young children, met Smith in a nightclub in England, where he is playing county cricket this summer.

Of 1,293 cricket fans who took part in a poll organised by The West Australian newspaper, an overwhelming 1,161 said Warne should be axed as vice-captain by the Australian Cricket Board.

Only 132 people said Warne should retain the post.

The Australian Cricket Board has said it will wait until August to decide Warne's fate.

Warne is known to have a strong wish to eventually to become Australian captain -- an ambition unlikely to be realised if he loses the deputy's job.