Australia World Cup vice-captain Adam Gilchrist believes that Shane Warne's delay in revealing he had taken more than one tablet containing diuretics could further harm his public image.
"There is no doubt people don't like being deceived," Gilchrist told reporters on Tuesday after Warne announced he had taken another diuretic in early December, in addition to the one he tested positive for in January.
"I am not saying for one moment Warney was intentionally doing that and I don't know all the fine details but there could easily be a perception that information had been withheld.
"When that finally does come out people can be put off and that can cloud certain people's judgement."
The Australian Cricket Board's anti-doping committee banned Warne from playing and coaching at all levels for 12 months on Saturday. He had flown home from the World Cup in South Africa after being told of his positive drugs test.
The 33-year-old leg spinner, one of Wisden's five cricketers of the 20th century, had claimed he took a fluid-reducing tablet to improve his appearance without knowing it contained an illegal drug. Diuretics can also be used to mask other drugs.
Gilchrist added: "As far as I am concerned, what was said to us as a group (of players) wasn't intentionally trying to hide anything.
"Only one guy knows what the truth is and he has got to live with that."
Gilchrist said Warne's revelation to the squad that he had tested positive for a banned substance had been a "bombshell" on the eve of their first World Cup match against Pakistan.
"I don't remember the finer details about what was said," he said.
"Personally I never sat down and thought 'he's only taken one or a lot of pills', I have not analysed it that much.
"Over the last few days I know there has been speculation there had been more than one tablet and, now he has come out and said it, I am not really stung by it or hurt by it.
"I am not losing sleep over it, I am not going to toss and turn and think 'what else is there?'
"It is his prerogative to work out what he wants to say and he is the only one who really knows."
