David Warner’s bid to become Australia’s short-form captain has hit another snag, with the governing body’s code of conduct likely to ensure the veteran top order batter never leads his nation.
A report in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has revealed that when Warner, along with Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, opted not to have a hearing into the infamous ball tampering scandal following the Newlands Test in 2018, they forfeited the right to overturn sanctions written into their respective bans.
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As brought to life by The Age, “Where a player or player support personnel admits the offence charged and accedes to the proposed sanction specified in the ‘Report & Notice Charge’ form in accordance with the procedure described in Articles 4.5.5.1, the player or player support personnel waives his/her right to any appeal against the imposition of such a sanction.”
As such, should there be a push for Warner’s leadership ban to be ended, Cricket Australia’s board would have to commission a rewrite of the code of conduct. Any such move would likely have further consequences down the track.
At the same time, for the ban to be lifted, another investigation into the events of the Newlands Test would have to be addressed, too.
Former CA chief executive Kevin Roberts has previously stated that the governing body would be open to reopening the investigation should further evidence come to life.
In 2019, he said: “If anyone does report concerns about any integrity matter prior to ball tampering or whatever it may be, we’re serious about addressing that, and we have a process to address it.”
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Warner recently told reporters it would be a “privilege” to be considered for the captaincy role.
“I haven’t had any conversations at all (yet). But look, I think at the end of the day any opportunity to captain would be a privilege,” Warner said.
“But, from my end, there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge, to have those conversations with Cricket Australia and my main focus is just actually playing cricket.”
In a wide-ranging interview with foxsports.com.au, Warner added that he was interested to hear what CA are thinking on the captaincy and that, in the twilight of his career, he was content with being a family man and worrying about himself on the field.
“I think at the end of the day it’s about what questions do they want to ask me,” Warner told foxsports.com.au.
“That’s where the conversation starts and then we can lead from there.
“At the end of the day it’s almost a completely new ball game from when 2018 happened. I would be interested to see and hear what their thoughts are and what not. And then we can probably go from there.”
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The CA board, who declined to comment about the report, will meet next month on October 13 and Warner’s role within Australian cricket is bound to be a talking point, especially in light of Aaron Finch’s decision to call time from ODIs.
Whether or not he wishes to play for Australia beyond next month’s T20 World Cup remains to be seen, but a home title defence seems like a suitable finale particularly given his form concerns.
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Regardless, with a new ODI captain needed to be found, Australia will have to make a move on their leadership team.
Test captain Pat Cummins has been linked to the role and plays all three formats, but given the taxing nature of bowling, another candidate will be looked at.
Glenn Maxwell has experience of captaincy with the Melbourne Stars and, at 33, still has years left in him.
While Travis Head, who has been in and out of all three teams for years but has held a number of captaincy roles, is 28.
Wicket-keeper Alex Carey is 31, but currently is not in the Australian T20 team.
