Warner no show fully justified
OPINION: A fair few New Zealand cricket fans will be leaping for joy at the news David Warner won’t be visiting Auckland, Napier and Hamilton in the next fortnight.
For whatever reason, the prolific opener is disliked by many on our side of the ditch, and the Black Caps have a much better chance of snatching back the trans-Tasman silverware with no Warner and Usman Khawaja in canary yellow.
But Warner’s resting from the three one-day internationals highlights two glaring issues: the appalling behaviour of a minority of New Zealand cricket fans and the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy’s continued slide towards obscurity.
There’s no suggestion Warner has been shielded from New Zealand fans, but you’d imagine he hardly protested wildly when the selectors or coach Darren Lehmann raised the prospect of resting in order to prepare for the India tests.
Warner may even have leapt from his seat in a trademark century celebration at the thought of not being subjected to hours of cowardly, personal abuse from Eden Park fans next Monday. He’d be fully justified in raising a figurative middle finger to New Zealand crowds from his couch.
He told Australian media after their New Zealand tour last February: ’’It doesn’t matter if you’re home or away, you’re going to cop some form of abuse, but we don’t expect to be hounded for six or seven hours.
‘‘Some of the stuff was pretty derogatory and pretty vulgar and the upsetting thing was the fact that, I know if my two daughters were in the crowd I wouldn’t want them listening to that sort of stuff.’’
The level of vitriol directed at Warner in Auckland a year ago verged on alarming, and was poorly policed by ground security. If you thought the booing of Wallaby Quade Cooper was bad, this was a whole new level of boorishness and nastiness, from faceless individuals surrounded by the safety blanket of hundreds of fans. It was embarrassing to witness, and continued on and off for the rest of the tour.
Warner is a combative individual and extremely good at what he does, which appear to be his only cricketing crimes. In my experience Warner is courteous and honest in interviews, not a massive fan of the media but always forthright and even insightful. I’d rate him alongside South Africa’s Dale Steyn as the best interview subjects in world cricket.
No Warner is an undoubted blow for New Zealand Cricket in terms of promoting the series. He’s the obvious drawcard and crowdpuller. After Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc there are very few household names.
Crowds will still show up for home series against Australia but the worrying question remains how long these Chappell-Hadlee onedayers will be persevered with.
It’s always been a muchawaited contest for New Zealand fans and the Black Caps have long targeted revenge after their limp showing across the Tasman in December.
Australia have rested top players before, and Warner and Khawaja’s absences show this one’s a low priority amid a packed schedule including their own hugely popular Big Bash. Next year’s scheduled ODI series in Australia was canned in favour of a much more lucrative Twenty20 tri-series with England.
As memories fade of New Zealand’s participation in the first day-night test, which earned them a few favours from Australia, it will become harder to nail down a regular trans-Tasman ODI series. Particularly in Australia where the Black Caps let themselves down badly preChristmas.
Let’s hope that’s not the case, and that we see David Warner back in New Zealand many more times yet, with a smile on his face.