Is David Warner genuinely remorseful for his part in the Newlands scandal?
In the lengthy and convoluted process allowing him to request the lifting of his lifetime leadership ban from 2018, climaxing with a hearing before three Cricket Australia code of conduct commissioners, that is the simple question at its heart.
David Warner fronts the media at the height of the ball-tampering scandal.Credit:Getty
In the rewritten code of conduct, consideration 10.8.3 will stand out like a neon sign to the decision-makers, who will be three of Cricket Australia’s current commissioners: Alan Sullivan, Robert Heath, Adrian Anderson, Jane Seawright and Leon Zwier.
“Whether the player or player support personnel acknowledges responsibility for the conduct that constituted the original offence the subject of the long-term sanction and demonstrates genuine remorse for that conduct.”
Warner, of course, has more than “done his time”, in the words of the former South African captain Faf du Plessis. He completed 100 hours of community service during his year-long ban from top-level cricket in Australia, and can report a spotless disciplinary record since he returned for the 2019 World Cup and Ashes tour.
With his management and the Australian Cricketers Association, Warner is working out what should be put into the written application that will start the process. The subsequent hearing can be held in person or via video link and is likely to be private.
Those close to Warner, spoken to by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, have outlined the fact that his best avenue in discussing reasons for the removal of his ban from captaincy is a forward-facing one.
Taking the focus away from South Africa, Warner would be on solid ground speaking about some of the lessons he’s learnt and how he’s become a much better leader now than perhaps he was five years ago as Steve Smith’s deputy. And to argue it would be to the detriment of the game if he wasn’t given another opportunity to lead.
Whether for the Sydney Thunder or potentially Australia, there will be great opportunities he can provide to younger players in all formats if he’s given the chance. If the focus is on the penalty and the penalty alone, that will be a much less tricky thing to discuss.
But if the conversation gets dragged back into the events of 2018 and the process around that, it can become something else entirely.
Warner, memorably, stuck carefully to a single message when he spoke publicly on his return from South Africa. “To my teammates and support staff, I apologise for my actions and I take full responsibility for my part in what happened on day three of the Newlands Test,” he said.
“There’s a tiny ray of hope that I may one day be given the privilege of playing for my country again but I’m resigned to the fact that that may never happen again. In the coming weeks and months I’m going to look at how this happened and who I am as a man. I will seek out advice and expertise to help me make serious changes.”
But in more recent times, Warner’s manager James Erskine offered a much spicier take on the saga.
“The report that was done, they didn’t interview all the players. The whole thing was so badly handled, it was a joke,” Erskine told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald last year. “But eventually the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, will come out and I know the whole truth. But it doesn’t serve any purpose because the Australian public over a period of time got to dislike the Australian team because they didn’t behave particularly well.
“There is absolutely no doubt that Smith, Warner and [Cameron] Bancroft were treated despicably. The fact of the matter is they did the wrong thing but the punishment didn’t fit the crime. I think if one or two of those players had taken legal action they would have won because of what the truth was.”
Demonstrating genuine rehabilitation should not be difficult for Warner. But indicating genuine remorse is going to take some skill.
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