‘Felt disrespectful’: David Warner criticizes Australian cricket over Ban’s captaincy saga

Veteran batter David Warner criticized Cricket Australia (California) for trying to overturn his lifetime captaincy ban last year. In 2018, Warner, along with Steve Smith, was suspended for two years for their involvement in a ball tampering scandal. The CA also placed a leadership ban on him. However, after CA reformulated its code of conduct, which initially said players could not revise a sanction once they accepted it, Warner filed an appeal to overturn his ban last November.

Warner was supposed to appear before a three-person panel, only to withdraw his appeal after learning that the hearing would be closed.

“It was ridiculous. I wanted to end it, and they just kept dragging it out and not giving answers. Nobody wanted to be responsible, nobody wanted to make a decision. You have an administration where, it would seem, there is a lack of leadership,” said Warner in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.

Warner suggested that although he wanted to end all the drama, CA kept dragging the issue out, which also affected his on-pitch play.

“They could nip it in the bud right away, but I get calls on the first, second, third day of test matches, I talk to lawyers, etc. when I don’t need it. I really felt disrespected.” that I couldn’t actually have a clear mind to play the game and focus on the game. So from that point of view, it wasn’t even like, “Oh, let’s stop and get back to it.” It’s been nine months, it was launched in February (2022). I was extremely disappointed,” he added.