Australian police on Wednesday arrested four men in connection with the armed kidnapping of former Test bowler Stuart MacGill. 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.
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.
Stuart MacGill did not inform police for a week after he was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint for ransom because he felt "threatened and scared".
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.
It is alleged one of the men charged - Marino Sotiropoulos, 46, - is the brother of MacGill's recent partner Maria O'Meagher.
The other three charged are brothers Frederick, 27, and Richard Schaaf, 29, and Son Minh Nguyen, 42.
Robbery and Serious Crime Squad detectives arrested the men about 6am on Wednesday, three weeks after the alleged kidnapping near MacGill's Sydney home.
Police allege it occurred about 8pm on April 14, when MacGill was confronted by the 46-year-old accused near the intersection of Parraween and Winne streets in Cremorne.
A short time later the pair were approached by two other men, allegedly forcing MacGill into a vehicle.
He was then allegedly driven to a property at Bringelly, where the two men, plus another unknown man, allegedly assaulted him and threatened him with a firearm.
About an hour later, police claim MacGill was driven to Belmore and released, according to police.