OUTCAST WARNER
Australian fast bowlers left fuming with disgraced vice-captain over accusation they were all part of ball-tampering plot
DAVID WARNER could have played his last game for Australia, with reports of a split in the dressing room between the opener and fast bowlers.
Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are understood to be fuming at Warner’s involvement as a central figure in the ball-tampering saga and the subsequent suggestion they too were a part of it.
Both bowlers have now been exonerated by the initial Cricket Australia investigation, with vice-captain Warner, skipper Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft taking the fall for the crisis.
But even with a lengthy ban to come for Warner, which was alluded to last night by chief executive James Sutherland, his return could be a problem following the schism now reported in the team.
The 31-year-old cut an isolated figure in their Cape Town hotel before flying onto Johannesburg with the rest of the squad in preparation for the fourth Test against South Africa.
It was claimed he was “swilling champagne” with non-cricket friends and had taken himself off the team’s WhatsApp group in a 21st-century sign of high dudgeon.
Warner has enjoyed a cult status in Australia up to now as ‘the Bull’, who has gone into snarling battle with the opposition with the blessing of his coach and captain.
But that attack-dog persona has now bitten Warner on the backside and, while Smith was described as “distraught” by Sutherland, and Bancroft was said “not to be doing too well”, there appears to be little support for the former vice-captain.
There were concerns that Warner was playing the part of the ‘Sandpapergate’ Deep Throat, following a report about the bowlers on Channel 9’s website that claimed to be from a “well-placed source”.
That source said: “They knew about it – don’t worry about that. You don’t have something like this happen and the whole team not know. Of course, they are playing dumb about it – you can’t blame them.”
With Warner described as having “gone rogue”, the briefing against him from within Australian cricket circles highlights the strength of antipathy towards a player who once punched Joe Root in a nightclub bar.
And yet, even if Warner was able to restore trust between him and his team-mates, the task of doing that with the Australian public will take far longer.
There could even be further fallout from an investigation in which the public are being asked to believe that head-coach Darren Lehmann knew nothing about the tampering plan when he has been at the helm for more than four years, fostering and cultivating the current dressing-room environment.
Michael Clarke has been at the centre of that dressing-room as captain and was clearly unimpressed with this version of events when in response he tweeted: “The truth, The full story, Accountability and Leadership – until the public get this Australian cricket is in deep s**t!”
Lehmann may yet not survive but, for now, he remains in charge, and has at least one game to show what he and his team
have learnt so far.