David Warner has sent Australia’s Ashes preparations into turmoil with Cricket Australia considering sending the star batsman home after an allegedly unprovoked physical attack on England player Joe Root.
Warner has been stood down from Wednesday’s Champions Trophy game against New Zealand for breaching Cricket Australia’s code of conduct.
Warner was allegedly involved in a physical altercation with the England player at a Birmingham bar in the early hours of Sunday following the pool match between the teams at Edgbaston.
England’s Fleet St press is reporting that Root was wearing a wig while enjoying his evening, which Warner snatched off his head. The Mirror reports that Warner then struck Root after he was challenged.
Team management scratched Warner from the must-win clash against the Kiwis at Edgbaston pending the outcome of a hearing, which CA said in a statement will be held “as soon as possible”.
England Cricket Board issued a statement on Wednesday confirming the incident, however didn’t name Root.
They said the assault was unprovoked and that Warner had since apologised to the player.
“Following a statement issued this morning by Cricket Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirms that David Warner initiated an unprovoked physical attack on a member of the England team in a Birmingham bar following England’s 48 run victory over Australia,” the statement said.
“Warner has admitted behaving inappropriately and has since apologised to the player involved who has accepted the apology.
“Following a full investigation the England team management has concluded that the England player was in no way responsible for, nor retaliated to the attack.
“ECB has concluded that this is a matter for Cricket Australia and have no further comment to make.”
Rumours emerged on Tuesday afternoon in Birmingham that an Australian player had been involved in an incident following the loss to England.
New Zealand players were at first hearing the Australian player had already been sent home.
National Selector John Inverarity denied any knowledge of an incident when questioned by AAP on Tuesday evening at the team hotel.
An Australian cricketer currently playing for Penn Cricket Club in Warwickshire, Sam Doggett, first tweeted the rumours on Tuesday evening England time.
Doggett has been a net bowler for the Champions Trophy and on Tuesday also tweeted a photo of himself with Australian fast bowler Clint McKay at a training session.
Warner has been no stranger to controversy in recent times and was recently involved in a twitter squabble with two Australian journalists and subsequently fined.
He had previously had a twitter clash with former Australian and Tasmanian player Brett Geeves, from which he was also reprimanded.
Warner’s potential disciplinary action comes at the worst possible time for the Australian team who have struggled since arriving in England where they are attempting to defend the Champions Trophy and then win back the Ashes.
The Australians were thrashed in a warm-up game against India, bowled out for a paltry 65.
They were then comfortably defeated by England in the first match, going down by 48 runs.
Australia’s poor start in England followed a humiliating 4-0 Test loss to India in India.
Ill-discipline was a feature of that tour with four players dropped for the Mohali Test because of the `homework-gate’ affair for not providing written feedback on how to improve their own and the team’s performance.
(With AAP.)
Roberto
Guest
Typical, Warner hit Root with a glancing blow, just like he bats lately....can't find the middle. Maybe he needs a boxing coach to help with his batting!
Jameswm
Guest
Bayman it's the third of those that's the biggest problem. Too few grounding him.
brother mouzone
Guest
no one deserves to be left in england
davos44
Guest
Expathack who is Katich playing for ...is it 1st div and is he really averaging 52 as was reported elsewhere in the media ? Thanks for clarifying Klingers performance...he is apprently ist class bloke a good leader and a reasonably good bat although he had a very ordinary shield season.....if you were to take some of the media at first glance you would think he is going gangbusters over there...glad u could put it in context
White line
Guest
Nice work james...sorry thought you were in this clown's camp.
davos44
Guest
Don't forget Katich who had his career ended with some of the best stats for an australin batsman at the time not so long ago as well....totally agree though let your khawajas etc go back to shield and gain selection by scoring a mountain of runs....the way we are identifying possible future talent then picking them because they were identified early is simply just not working ....and then we discard hardened proven test performers because supposedly they are to old ... or a batsman with a huge amount of runs is too old because he is in his mid thirties....imho batsman don't peak till they are thirty and many can stay in form for much longer .....and hard won and grafted experience is priceless
davos44
Guest
Clarkey has said all along that he has no issues with Katich...who would know? I rate both of them really highly....I think what happened to Katich was plain wrong backed up by his stats at the time ...if u can call up chris rogers why not recall "The Kat " especially if its true he is in England atm and ave 52 .... a proven tough as nails opener in form atm who has done the buissiness in England before... who needs one of those ?...my top order would be Katich , Cowan, rogers hughes clarke huss (if avail) and if hughes doesn't perform recall punter if he is still scoring runs Watson and most definitely Haddin as keeper .. Anyway who says Clarke is gonna play ? Would definitely be ironic if Clarke was ruled out thru injury ...and Katich came back in and did well
Nick
Roar Guru
Obviously Warner was paying Root a complement.
MervUK
Guest
Easy to say, difficult to do brendon. If you come dancing down the wicket and try to dominate a bit, miss and lose your wicket... Vilification for rash shot selection results. These Aussie batsmen look too scared to fail or be seen to be playing too loosely following the Indian debacle. Case in point the circumspect way Warner and Watson played against England on sat. Although it has now emerged Warner had double vision at the time!
Brendon
Guest
The concerning thing for me is that he's on the drink when an important tournament is on, it's one thing having a couple of beers, it's another sitting in the walk-a-bout and getting smashed. if he's drinking continuously then he has to come home,i don't really care about him throwing a punch at the opposition, easy fixed, don't drink in the same bar, it's the drinking that bothers me. I watched us bat against NZ last night and the whole team bar Voges and maybe Bailey need to start thinking about their cricket, the batsmen looked terribly shaky and NZ's world class spinners (yeah right) had us buggered. Seriously, I could play spin nearly as good as most of these blokes. I did herar something interesting Ramiz Raja I think it was said, Aust can't play against the spin and when asked what he would do he said that he would hit the off-spinners over the offside field to throw the bowlers line and length off, I watched intently after that and not one Aussie batsman can do this, too busy reverse sweeping and trying to play everything down to fine leg.......Where's the frikin coaching?
MervUK
Guest
Indeed James, surely someone in the Aussie camp must have said to him "maybe you should stay sober for a night, after all you did jab someone in the face last time, we play the kiwis in 30 hours and you have got less runs than Phil Hughes on this tour so far" . Apparently the walkabout manager coyly said "we know his face", I take this to mean he's got a sleeping bag down in the VIP area and starts each morning in the bar with a vodka...
Brendon
Guest
We've all been there, so I'll let that little incident by punter pass
Brendon
Guest
I hope I see the biggest punch up in origin history next game, then I'm going to stir all the PC fun police up on this site, can't wait.
Brendon
Guest
One has to wonder if the sport means much to em if they aren't fighting in the same bar after a loss. in the land of a million pubs how do two international teams end up drinking at the same place?
Brendon
Guest
Come off it, the blokes a dill yeah, but you can't question his ability.
Brendon
Guest
maybe cause no one follows us around and if we get drunk and biff someone at indoor cricket no one cares.
jameswm
Roar Guru
See below.
Brendon
Guest
Nothing wrong with having a quiet beer after work (game) I realise that this was not a quiet beer, and that's the problem, can't believe he's dumb enough to do this.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Whiteline I've been out this morning. I'm a Warner backer? What does that mean? That I'd pick him in the team? I never vouched for him as a person or promoted him for skipper. Root may have been acting like a nob, but Warner's a goose. The worst part is that apparently 2 nights later, Warner was back drinking in the same bar. Are these guys professional sportsmen or there for a social trip? They just don't get how lucky they are. Sounds like Davey's got a brain the size of a pea.
Brendon
Guest
Didn't realise he was in second div, cheers.....I retract my statement