Calcutta: Shane Warne has said that he is shutting down his charitable foundation, blaming "unwarranted speculation" about its financial and regulatory problems for the closure.

A message posted on the The Shane Warne Foundation's website, reads: "...As The Shane Warne Foundation officially announces it is ceasing operations and has begun the process of closing the Foundation, we will celebrate so many incredible achievements."

The Foundation, in the post, said that since 2004, it had distributed $3.67 million to charities such as the Starlight Foundation and to the families of seriously ill children.

In an interview to The Telegraph, published on December 1, 2015, Warne had said: "...I'd like to emphasise that nobody in the Foundation has ever done anything wrong and nobody on its Board or the patrons (Russell Crowe and Liz Hurley are among the patrons) or its ambassadors has got a cent from it."

He had further said: "I have been a giver all my life, never a taker... Let me tell you that there have been times when we've had to buy items being put up at auctions in fund-raisers."