Cricketer Shane Warne among least-trusted Aussies-list

CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - Cricket great Shane Warne and the U.S.-born chief of Australia's biggest phone company have been named among the nation's least-trusted people, just ahead of ex-Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks.

Medical researchers and children's entertainment group The Wiggles topped the trust list, with Bali bombing burns treatment pioneer Fiona Wood taking top slot for the fourth year running, publisher Readers Digest said.

"The only person who'd knock her off the top is Mother Teresa, and she's dead," said list demographer Bernard Salt.

Warne, who retired from test cricket last year with a record 708 wickets, came 95th in the list of 100 names, alongside Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo, who has had a rocky tenure at the head of the telecommunications giant.

Throughout his cricketing career Warne attracted as much controversy off the field as he did on it, with suspension for passing tips to an Indian bookmaker and the breakup of his marriage over extramarital affairs and phone text scandals.

Acknowledged as one of the finest leg spin bowlers the world has seen, Warne also served a ban for testing positive to a prohibited diuretic and in 1999 was charged with bringing the game into disrepute after criticising Sri Lanka's captain.

Joining Warne in the trust basement was David Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner and Afghanistan militant recruit released from Guantanamo Bay and later an Australian prison last year.

Centre-left Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd came 62nd, the highest position for a politician.

The most trusted included national television stars, U.S.-based singer and actor Olivia Newton-John and the Australian-born Princess Mary of Denmark, who met her Danish Prince husband in a Sydney pub.