Cricket: David Warner issues furious statement over leadership ban appeal

David Warner of Australia. Photo / Getty

David Warner has penned a furious letter declaring he will not be appealing his leadership ban because he does not want to drag his family through another media circus.

The Australian opening batsman has regularly come under fire even after serving a one-year ban over the sandpaper saga that brought the team into disrepute in 2018.

His position as vice-captain was scrapped, and he was forced to serve the ban alongside former skipper Steve Smith. However, Smith has been given the opportunity to lead his country again despite his involvement in the Newlands ball tampering saga.

The same privilege was not extended to Warner, who will never hold a leadership position in Australian cricket again.

In November, Cricket Australia ratified a change to its Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel. The door appeared to be open for Warner to have his lifetime leadership ban overturned.

Warner was prepared to appeal the decision, but has now rescinded his attempt to overturn the ban because the hearings will be made public.

Warner says he has been subject to a “public lynching” following the Newlands fiasco and refuses to put his family in the firing line again.

“Despite my opposition and that of Cricket Australia, on Tuesday last week Counsel Assisting the Review Panel and the Review Panel took it upon themselves to concoct an irregular procedure (overturning presumptions and previous practice) for the determination of my application and establish a novel approach that would negatively impact the health and welfare of my family and the interests of the Australian cricket team,” he said in a lengthy statement posted to social media on Wednesday.

“In his submissions, Counsel Assisting made offensive and unhelpful comments about me that had absolutely no substantive purpose under the Code of Conduct.

“Regrettably, the Review Panel acted contrary to the submissions of Cricket Australia and my lawyer and appeared to adopt virtually entirely the position of Counsel Assisting.

“In effect, Counsel Assisting, and, it appears, to some extent the Review Panel, want to conduct a public trial of me and what occurred during the third test at Newlands. They want to conduct a public spectacle to, in the Panel’s words, have a “cleansing”. I am not prepared for my family to be the washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry.

“My family is more important to me than cricket.”

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There is no suggestion Warner will hang up the boots just yet, with the 36-year-old recently indicating that he intends to play international cricket until the 2024 T20 World Cup, suggesting he may retire from tests after next year’s Ashes series in England.

“Test cricket will probably be the first one to fall off,” he told Triple M’s Deadset Legends in November.

“Because that’s how it will pan out. The T20 World Cup is in 2024, (one-day) World Cup next year.

“Potentially it could be my last 12 months in test cricket.

“But I love the white-ball game; it’s amazing.”