‘I’m not a criminal’- David Warner calls his lifetime leadership ban ‘harsh’ in explosive interview
Former Australia captain who was stripped of the role and banned from the game for taking part in cheating against South Africa wants his lifetime leadership ban reviewed. David Warner, who was vice-captain of the team when the Sandpaper gate incident happened was banned from leadership roles along with Steve Smith. Since then, the left-handed batter has been on a course correction journey.
Since his ban, Warner has come out stronger and has looked like a changed man. He has since then taken part in 100 hours of community service and has been an ideal representative of the game.
Now however the southpaw wants to be captain again and has campaigned to get his leadership ban reviewed. The process however seems to be dragging along with no end in sight; something that has irked the batter. Speaking at a promotion event Warner made some explosive claims and showed dejection at Cricket Australia.
“I’m not a criminal,” Warner said. “You should get a right of an appeal at some stage. I understand that they put a ban in place but banning someone for life, I think it’s a bit harsh,” said the batter.
“Where it’s been disappointing, it’s taken this long to get to where it has. It was brought up in I think February this year. So it’s been drawn out. It’s traumatic for me and my family and everyone else that was involved in it. We haven’t needed to go back into that detail. We don’t need to relive what happened,” added Warner.
“It’s frustrating because we could have done this about nine months ago when it was first brought up,” Warner said. “It’s unfortunate that obviously, Finchy retired and then they sort of fast-tracked it in their own way. But it’s a tad disappointing that when you make a decision in 2018, it’s in four days, and then this takes nine months.” The 36-year-old has iterated that he doesn’t want it to seem like a campaign.
“So that’s the hardest thing. It actually makes me look like I’m campaigning, which I’m totally not. So from my perspective, that’s where it’s been disappointing,” an irked Warner said. Warner however could also see the bright side of things and claimed to be thankful for his current position.
But it’s good to get in a position where we are now today. And it gives me an opportunity to ring up the integrity unit to therefore have a word to them and put forward my case of I guess, the 100 hours [of community service] that I did in 2018 for what happened. Basically, all this good behaviour stuff that I’ve done, I think I have to put forward so I’m happy to do that.”
