Warne hearing adjourned until tomorrow

MELBOURNE, Feb 21 AAP - The committee in the Shane Warne drugs hearing will not return its verdict until tomorrow.

The hearing was adjourned at 5.40pm this evening, nearly eight hours after it started.

Australian Cricket Board spokesman Peter Young said the three-person committee hearing Warne's case had decided to adjourn and deliberate overnight.

He said it would reconvene at 11am tomorrow when it hoped to announce its verdict.

Warne tested positive to a banned diuretic on January 22, the day he announced his retirement from international one-day cricket.

After much deliberation, he was charged with using a prohibited method, meaning he faced a minimum two-year ban if found guilty.

But there was scope for Warne to be given a lesser sentence or even escape penalty under an "exceptional circumstance" clause in the ACB's anti-doping policy.

"The committee has decided to adjourn and they will reconvene at 11am tomorrow," said ACB spokesman Peter Young.

"They will consider their position overnight and they hope to be in a position to issue a determination here at 11am tomorrow ...

"I think all can we read into it is they want an appropriate amount of time."

When asked if he could reveal the identity of the seven witnesses who appeared before the hearing today, Young replied: "It's a closed hearing and I'm not in a position to confirm any other detail other than what I have just said."

Warne left the hearing without comment, speeding off in his car flanked by wife Simone and brother and manager Jason.

The three people charged with deciding Warne's cricketing future were committee chairman Justice Glen Williams, medical expert Dr Susan White and former Test spin bowler Peter Taylor.

The ACB called five witnesses today and Warne's legal team brought forward another two for the hearing which started at 9.50am at the ACB's Jolimont headquarters.

Should Warne be cleared tomorrow he would be free to rejoin his teammates at the World Cup in South Africa.

Suspension would mean a replacement being chosen to replenish the 15-man squad.

The most likely replacements would be Queensland off-spinner Nathan Hauritz or New South Wales leg-spinner Stuart MacGill.

The only other two drugs cases heard by the ACB involved players with much lower profiles than Warne.

West Australian Duncan Spencer received an 18-month ban two years ago after testing positive to the steroid nandrolone.

Last year, NSW batsman Graeme Rummans was fined $2000 and banned for a month after testing positive to probenecid.