Aussie ex-Test cricketer ‘kidnapped’, four arrested

Gulf Today Report

Former Test cricketer Stuart MacGill was allegedly kidnapped from his home in Sydney, Australian media reported on Wednesday.

Australian police arrested four men in connection with the armed kidnapping of former Test bowler Stuart MacGill.

New South Wales state police described the victim of the April 14 alleged kidnapping only as a 50-year-old man. MacGill was widely identified as the victim, including in reports by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and News Corp. newspapers, according to The Associated Press.

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The men were detained in a pre-dawn raid in Sydney, following the kidnapping of the cricketer in the city's affluent Lower North Shore last month.

Media reported that MacGill was confronted by a man on a street in Sydney’s north before two other men arrived and helped force him into a car.

Stuart MacGill (left) chatting with England captain Joe Root during training at the SCG in Sydney. AFP

MacGill was lauded as a talented bowler and played 44 Tests for Australia, but was unlucky that his career coincided with that of Shane Warne, ranked by many as the best spin bowler of all time.

Police said that on April 14 the 50-year-old MacGill was confronted by three men at an intersection and bundled into a vehicle.

He was driven to a property an hour out of the city where he was allegedly assaulted and threatened with a firearm before being released after the hour-long ordeal.

"I know it was only an hour that he was held but it would have been a horribly frightful hour to endure," NSW Police superintendent Anthony Holton told media.

MacGill, who knew one of his alleged kidnappers, was "still quite shaken" by the incident, Holton said.

After "extensive investigations" a police strike force and riot officers arrested four men aged 27, 29, 42 and 46, in the early hours of Wednesday.

Although no ransom was paid police believe the kidnapping was financially motivated.

The four men were in the process of being charged and were expected to appear in court later on Wednesday.