Players want ‘party animal’ Warner out of hotel: Reports
FALLOUT Australian players are upset with Warner’s lack of remorse after the ball tampering scandal MUMBAI:
If the ball tampering row at Cape Town wasn’t enough, Australian vice-captain David Warner has invited fresh trouble for himself after he partied with his non-cricket friends at the team hotel — something that hasn’t gone down well with his teammates.
The team members, who are having a tough time after skipper Steve Smith admitted that the leadership unit of the side knew about SandpaperGate scandal and got thrashed by 322 runs against South Africa, were left raging over the explosive opener’s behaviour and have asked authorities concerned to remove him from the team hotel.
REMOVE WARNER According to a Fox Sports report, they’ve even threatened that there could be an ‘incident’ if Warner stays on.
The report further claimed that Warner has gone rogue ever since the scandal broke and has even exited from a WhatsApp group between the players.
WARNER WAS ‘AWARE’
Although Warner’s association hasn’t yet been proved like that of Cameron Bancroft and Smith, it is widely understood that he was well aware of the ploy and had agreed to carry on with it. Another report on the Sydney Morning Herald claims that a section of the team felt that Warner wanted to push them under the bus. Fairfax Media even claimed that Warner could have been the primary instigator with Smith simply agreeing to play a part since the southpaw was usually the team’s ball manager, which in the third Test of the ongoing fourmatch series was taken over by Bancroft.
The report on The Sydney Morning Herald further claimed that several cricketers of the team did not want to step on the field with Warner again.
Cricket Australia’s head of integrity Iain Roy and executive Pat Howard have already flown from Cape Town to Johannesburg to meet with CA’s chief executive James Sutherland and hand over their findings.
CA PROBE
It has been learnt that the duo held interview sessions with the players, management and staff over the past couple of days.
Meanwhile, owing to the one Test ban that has been handed out to Smith by the International Cricket Council (ICC), Matt Renshaw has been asked to join the squad for the fourth game of the series.