David Warner is a man with issues – serious ones. His off-field behaviour of late has been fraught with immature acts and senseless shenanigans – behaviour that has effectively ruled him out of the opening Ashes Test at Trent Bridge on 10 July.
Twice in the space of three weeks he has been called upon to explain himself with regard to behaviour deemed to be unacceptable by his primary employer, Cricket Australia.
He can count himself exceptionally lucky that he has not been sent home.
Many Australian cricket fans will today be questioning why he has been shown leniency given his erratic recent behaviour.
First, it was his Twitter rant against two of Australia’s leading and most experienced cricket journalists, Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn.
His over the top tweets earned him a $5750 fine.
Far from chastened by his public embarrassment he has now been slugged another $11,500 for taking a swing at England batsman Joe Root in a bar.
The charge was for ‘unbecoming behaviour’.
Warner, as he did with respect to his Twitter outburst, pleaded guilty at his CA disciplinary hearing presided over by Justice Gordon Lewis, CA’s senior commissioner for the code of behaviour.
On top of the fine Warner was also handed a suspension.
He has been ruled out of Australia’s remaining games at the Champions Trophy and both four-day first-class warm-up matches that the suad will play against Somerset and Worcestershire ahead of the opening Test.
With a paucity of runs so far in England this tour – 0, 0 and 9 – and with no chance to find form in the middle before the side arrives in Nottingham he has no chance of playing the first Test.
And, with four other openers in the squad – Ed Cowan, Shane Watson, Phil Hughes and Chris Rogers – he has given whichever pair gets the nod at Trent Bridge a grand opportunity to book-in for the series.
Warner is not a young man – he turns 27 in October.
But his recent behaviour smacks of immaturity.
Of particular concern to Cricket Australia is no doubt the timing of both incidents that have seen him come a cropper.
The Twitter rant was fired off around 4 o’clock in the morning and his altercation with Root around 2am.
Alcohol was reported as a contributor to Warner’s latest episode.
It was in India in March that Australian coach Mickey Arthur drew ‘a line in the sand’ and stood down four players – Watson, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Johnson and James Pattinson – after they failed to complete a request for feedback on their and the team’s performances.
Captain Michael Clarke said that the suspensions were as a result of an ongoing deterioration of standards amongst the playing group.
It would appear that in Warner’s case the example made of the quartet in India had little impact on his own level of behaviour.
To most of us fines in excess of $17,000 in a three-week period would be seen as steep but Warner earns well in excess of $1 million annually.
The suspension will have a greater impact.
And plainly, being sent home would have had a greater one.
Australian cricket is currently at a modern-day nadir.
The Test squad suffered the ignominy of a 4-nil defeat at the hands of India in their last outing.
The top-order has performed underwhelmingly of late, while veterans Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey rode off into the sunset late in the Australian summer and the current captain is battling a degenerative back injury in the hope of being fit for the first Test.
Former England players and Fleet Street scribes have been having a field day with the fodder that the Australian team has cast their way.
Desperate times call for stern and courageous leadership.
Warner should be on the plane home – an action that would signal to all and sundry that enough is enough.
To flagrantly be in trouble less than a month after another breach of the code of behaviour is simply unacceptable – to his teammates and the fans who help pay his salary.
Representing Australia on the cricket field comes with rights, riches and responsibilities.
Warner cannot tick off on all three of those criteria.
It is high time he learned to.
Harry from Floreat
Guest
+1
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Probably not, and there is some hypocricy in that. People are much more forgiving of players bad attitudes when that attitude seems to be working for them. As it is, we are all looking for reasons why this team is failing so often, and things like tis point towards some possible (probable) reasons. But even when performing well, hitting opponents in a ar tends to get a fairly solid public rebuke.
colvin
Guest
Can you imaging the Socceroos going on a bender? Well possibly. Also, can you imagine any of the WBs. say, Quade, Kurtley Beale, JOC et al going on a bender? Or " I feel like I've been hit by a bus" Danny Ciprani? Well maybe, they've certainly done it before. Or the Aus Olympic swimming team? Or any of the ARL teams? Or any Aus (or NZ) politicians? Or journalists? Or spectators? Well yes. Isn't there a cultural thing here, where going on a bender is a seemingly accepted part of society? And that many or most young kids are trained in some form of martial arts so that when they grow up they know how to handle themselves in a scrap perhaps before they know how to handle themselves in society? Why is it that bouncers are needed at pubs or nightclubs? Look at the way politicians talk to each other. (Julia Gillard/Tony Abbot) The way journalists and social media write about people. It's verbal bashing, which is just as bad as physical bashing. The bullying and abuse that goes on in the legal and commercial world, you should see it. IMO there is a much larger issue here than just David Warner's conduct.
Aakash bhat
Guest
My question to all of you is if warner had been in good form and scoring lots,does this incident have made such a big fuss???????? Reply!
dasilva
Guest
Like MervUK say the reports aren't even true HOwever even if that was the case I hate to see the day where any words someone can say can justify violence Yes even racial abuse doesn't justify violent retaliation The principles of sticks and stones still apply
Milz
Guest
+1
Sandy
Guest
I am certainly not saying it is ok. On this site alone there are 9 articles on the same subject, what I am saying is enough is enough.
Don Corleone
Guest
Yet there are reports both groups were drinking and exchanging in banter.
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
Yes Robz i agree ..I think Clarke is cut from the same cloth Ponting was as captain...more focussed on being "one of the boys" in the team and popular with his team mates rather than making the hard leadership decisions and setting behaviour standards...Agreed that members of past teams may not have been angels either but remember then there was not a CCTV camera on every street corner and/or everyones hand in the form of a phone ...away from the glare of the worlds instant media, what went on on tour, stayed on tour....times have changed and because of it, behaviour has to as well....this goes for all high level sports people and those who derive a huge lifestyle from being in the spotlight....
Robz
Guest
"Desperate times call for stern and courageous leadership." This is correct and unfortunatey we will not get it from Clarke. I am a massive fan if him as a cricketer, but not as a captain. Having said that I am not really sure who of the current crop does have the required credentials to pull this team into line. In regards to both Warner incidents and the "homework" incident - to me, the punishments in all cases seem over the top for what we know happened. Which leads me to believe there is a lot more going on in the Austraian cricket team than CA is allowing to be made public.
jameswm
Roar Guru
They were at the same bar. I don't think they were drinking with them.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Drowning their sorrows. I don't buy the line that it's only ok to go out for a drink if you've won. I buy the line that these are professional sportsmen on tour, and they shouldn't be going out on the turps at all. It can't be the best thing for performance in a game 2 days later. Pay me a mill a year to play cricket, and I'm sure I could take it seriously to go dry (like Sids). These guys don't understand how lucky they are to be paid that much to have that job, and the responsibility that goes with it. That's the issue.
Stu
Guest
Wait, wait, wait... two incidents in three weeks and it's the media's fault? Not the player's fault... the media's? Please. Warner clearly has off-field issues that run deeper than we're hearing, and the sooner he seeks help and starts fixing those the better for him and ultimately Australian cricket.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Didn't AB ban his team in 89 from socialising with the English players and from using their nicknames ? He'd be filthy at the thought of players having a beer with the poms after losing a game to them.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I think Warners a bit of a twit but he's been hung out to dry here. I saw an interview with a witness who said Warner didn't punch Root at all...he pushed him away (albeit to the head). The fact that Root and Warner kept drinking afterwards shows it wasn't serious. If their roles were reversed we'd probably been flaying Warner now for making racist jokes in public. All this 'one punch' stuff is absolute hysteria when applied to this situation.
MervUK
Guest
Reports are not correct, joe root told the ecb he put the beard over his chin and said to broad "this is what I'd look like if I could grow a beard" Warner came over from the other side of the bar, where he was out of ear shot, and grabbed it. Joe root's best friend at Yorkshire is azeem rafik, the young off spinner of Pakistani descent. All this racism bilge is nonsense, just because Warner, who witnesses and bar staff say was "slaughtered" and a distance away perceived this as a joke at Alma's expense. Why are we giving any credence to what he says, he's an idiot with form and was half-cut...
Timmuh
Roar Guru
He has been sat out from the CT and tour matches. Does that simply mean he joins Australia A tomorrow to find form before the tour matches? In some ways drinking until the wee hours isn't the issue. It is not a good look in the professional era, and normally there are team curfews in place - suggesting things are rather lax (maybe when the real portion of the tour starts team management will put stricter rules in place). Taking a swing at someone is an issue, and a huge one, as is Warner's general behaviour on and off field. He needs results and either is reacting badly to the pressure of that; or (sadly I suspect more likely) is a petulant, self absorbed, prat and can't see that his performance isn't up to that expected of him and that behaviour will be linked to his performance in the eyes of a lot of people. I wonder if it had been somebody other than Davey, even a more valuable player, would they still be in the Ashes squad. Or is the penalty applied at mate's rates. England seem to doing OK, and would also appear to be allowing their players to go out until late.
Ricky Stuart's Beard
Guest
The world has gone mad. Why is he being portrayed as the Devil? If reports are correct he was standing up for a friend who was being discriminated against because of his looks and or religion? One week we put Adam Goodes up on a pedestal for standing up against racism against a 13 yr old girl, the next week this. That will do me!
TriangleFlatDog
Guest
Have to agree here. well said!
Jocelyn McLennan
Roar Guru
Someone needs to remind Warner and the whole team for that matter they are NOT on a school camp or an end of season football team trip to Bali....Is it just me or is it not an absolute privelage and honour to be selected to represent your country for ANY team? and thus treat it as a privelage and behave accordingly with some decorum!.....I thought cricket was a gentlemens sport....there seems to be very few in the team these days...standards of behaviour have slipped badly since Steve Waugh retired...I wonder what the culture in the team would be like now if Gilchrist had been chosen instead of Ponting as captain. MIke Hussey should be sent over as a chaperone if not a player perhaps!