Shane Warne denies he was behind famous sledge

Australian cricketing great Shane Warne. Photosport

Remember Scott Muller? If you do, chances are it's not for the reasons he'd like.

The fast bowler from Queensland played two Tests for Australia against Pakistan in late 1999, taking seven wickets. All up, he played 30 first-class games for a haul of 102 scalps.

But what cricket fans remember most about Muller is that he was the victim of the most notorious one-liner in Aussie cricket. Well, maybe the second-most. There's some stiff competition from Steve Waugh's alleged: "You just dropped the World Cup" to South Africa's Herschelle Gibbs in 1999.

After a wild throw from the outfield in Muller's second Test in Hobart, microphones picked up someone saying: "Can't bowl, can't throw". Pretty harsh stuff for a bloke playing international cricket.

Shane Warne was the prime suspect for delivering the sledge, but has always denied his involvement. Channel 9 cameraman Joe Previtera - aka "Joe the Cameraman" - took responsibility for the comment, but there's always been a suspicion he was pushed into making the admission to save face for the blond leggie.

Speaking during the Channel 9 broadcast on day three when a trivia question popped up that listed Muller as one of the possible answers, Warnie addressed the infamous incident when Ian Healy reminded him he was bowling at the time the sledge was uttered.
He still maintained his innocence, but he appeared to heap an insult on Muller in the process.

"Now that you bring it up, I may as well address it. It's been about 15 years or whatever it's been, but I'm glad you've brought it up," Warne said.

"Just to let you know I was halfway down the pitch and there was an ABC independent stump mic in the cameras, in the stumps, and they didn't pick anything up, so if anyone wants to still pretend it was me, it wasn't. Just to clear that up.

"And if I wanted to tell him that, I would have told him that anyway. Whoever did say it, it's probably true."

So even if he didn't say it, that last line suggests he may well have thought it.