World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound has launched a scathing attack on cricketer Shane Warne and Australian authorities' handling of his positive drugs test in 2003, a British newspaper reported.

In his new book entitled "Inside Dope: How Drugs Are The Biggest Threat To Sports, Why You Should Care And What Can Be Done About Them," Pound said the diuretic Warne took was a masking agent that could have hidden the possible use of steroids, News of the World reported.

"Cricketer Shane Warne said his mother had given him a diuretic so that he would look slimmer on television, without mentioning the shoulder injury from which he was trying to recover," the paper quoted Pound as saying in his book.

"The diuretic was a masking agent that could have hidden the possible use of steroids that would help the injury cure faster.

"He had returned to play almost twice as quickly as the experts had predicted."

Warne was sent home from South Africa on the eve of the 2003 World Cup after testing positive for diuretic substances hydrochlorothiazide and amiloride.

The Australian Cricket Board banned him for 12 months, half the maximum penalty it could have imposed.

Pound told News of the World: "I was very disappointed with the one-year ban that the Australians gave to Warne.

"I think you only have to look at what the Australians say about the issue of doping and then look at what they do when their own sportsmen fail tests.

"Warne was extremely lucky but, at the time, it was not a decision in which WADA had any right to intervene."

The newspaper said Warne, who is playing in the second Ashes Test against England in Adelaide, had refused to comment on Pound's statements.

Pound said under current rules, WADA could have stepped in and enforced a full two-year ban.

He is watching cricket's latest drugs scandal involving Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif closely and said WADA may intervene in that case.

Shoaib was banned for two years and Asif for one following positive tests for the steroid nandrolone, but both are appealing.

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