Aussies forget the boomerang comes back
David Warner must have very good residential insurance cover because, clearly, the Australian cricketer is oblivious to the saying “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.
During Australia’s previous Test series in South Africa four years ago, Warner stopped just short of calling the Proteas cheats, claiming they were working on the ball.
He told an Australian radio station he wondered if AB de Villiers, who was the Proteas’ wicketkeeper at the time, was doing all kinds of dodgy things to the ball.
“We were actually questioning whether or not AB de Villiers would get the ball in his hand and with his glove, wipe the rough side every ball. That’s another thing we have to try and bring up with the umpires,” Warner said at the time, earning a well-deserved fine from the ICC.
Two years later, he must have chuckled on the inside when Faf du Plessis was sanctioned for rubbing sugary saliva on the ball during the second Test in Hobart.
“I won’t comment on the way [South Africa] have been behaving but I just know from an Australian cricket perspective, we hold our heads high and I’ll be very disappointed if one of our teammates [did that],” Warner said, fighting back his grin. “The rules are in place for a reason, if you’re not gonna use them, then why bother having them?”
On Sunday morning, Warner was stood down as Australian vice-captain, alongside captain Steve Smith, during the third Test for his role in the blatant ball-tampering episode involving Cameron Bancroft, to which the cricket world has reacted with utter disgust. Turns out Warner had three fingers pointing back at him all along. But what do you expect from a camp under Darren Lehmann’s leadership?
In 2013, Lehmann was so disgusted Stuart Broad didn’t want to walk at Trent Bridge after nicking the ball to slip that he not only had a full go at the Englishman, but urged Australian fans to go after him during the next Ashes at home.
“From my point of view, I just hope the Australian public give it to him right from the word go for the whole summer and I hope he cries and he goes home,” Lehmann told a radio station.
“I just hope everyone gets stuck into him, because the way he’s carried on and the way he’s commented in public about it is ridiculous.”
Five years later, when the shoe was on the other foot and the Newlands crowd was having a field day jeering the Aussies, especially Warner, the coach wasn’t as up for it any more.
“I think it’s been disgraceful. You’re talking about abuse of various players and their families and personal abuse, it’s not on at a cricket ground anywhere around the world, not just here, it shouldn’t happen. You can have the banter, that’s fine, banter is good-natured, fun by crowds, but they’ve gone too far here,” Lehmann said.
The irony is, most of the abuse directed at Warner involves Sonny Bill Williams and is a result of his fit of rage during the first Test in Durban, where he abused Quinton de Kock up to point where Quinnie threw it right back into his ugly face by referring to the wellknown toilet tryst involving the All Black and Warner’s missus.
One expects the inventors of the boomerang to know at least one thing: once you throw the bloomin’ thing, it’s coming back right at ya, mate.