Everyone deserves a second chance and an opportunity for redemption. Australian cricketer David Warner is no different.
But true redemption requires more than the mere passing of time. It also requires a contrite and humble spirit.
In the five years since Warner and some teammates cheated in a game against South Africa, he has largely proven himself to be a good team player. But he showed little humility in his dummy spit on the eve of the Adelaide Test on Wednesday night. His outburst about the process for a review against his lifetime leadership ban was based on a presumption that he should be allowed to shed the sanction entirely on his own terms.
When he asked for a review of the ban – imposed on him for his role as a key figure in the 2018 South African ball-tampering scandal – he exposed himself to the prospect of old wounds being reopened.
‘At the end of the day, it was Warner who pushed for the review. He brought this on himself.’
In his explosive statement, Warner said he had decided to withdraw from the review in response to the insistence of the commissioners and counsel assisting that the hearing be held in public.
While it is understandable for him to want to protect his family from any blowback, it was unrealistic to expect he could altogether avoid the discomfort of public scrutiny.
It turns out his response was also premature. As Cricket Australia explained, his concerns about a public hearing would most likely have been removed when Warner’s legal team made submissions asking for privacy. Cricket Australia has suggested it would have supported that submission.
Warner has many supporters within cricket including Australian captain Pat Cummins and NSW teammate Steve O’Keefe, who thinks Warner has been punished enough.
Steve Smith faced a two-year ban from the captaincy for his involvement in the ball tampering scandal and has been allowed to return, while Warner still faces a permanent ban. According to Cricket Australia, Warner had come up with the plan to cheat and Smith signed it off, before they both tried to cover it up.
O’Keefe says that looking back on the scandal, it is clear that Warner did the wrong thing, but believes the punishment was too harsh and that he is right to not want his family to relive the drama. “We all know what happened. We’ve all moved on from it. Just change your decisions. Let him captain Australia,” he says.
Some fans may agree and have criticised Cricket Australia’s decision to outsource Warner’s review to an external party. As the Herald’s chief cricket writer Malcolm Conn sees it, on the one hand Cricket Australia “have put their collective arm around Warner and pulled together an unprecedented deal to have him play in the Big Bash despite a hectic international schedule. And in return Cricket Australia left Warner to the vagaries of a process they lost control of”.
At the end of the day, it was Warner who pushed for the review. He brought this on himself.
Cricket Australia agreed to Warner’s request and decided to commission an independent authority to review the matter. Some say this was cowardice, others say it was an act in the interest of transparency.
When the external authority decided to hold the review in public Warner decided he didn’t like the terms. He had wanted the review to be behind closed doors and failing to get that, he wanted out. Unlike Warner, the Herald thinks sunshine is the best medicine to help heal an ugly chapter in Australian sporting history. And unlike Warner, the Herald believes cricket and trust in our sporting heroes is an issue of much more importance than the personal interests of just one player.
Regardless of where you sit on this issue, one thing is clear: the public image of the game has once again been tarnished. Warner and the code need to find a way through this mess because the public gaze will not be averted.
Warner and his supporters have deployed a careful and clever public relations strategy to effectively turn villain into victim. Supporters are now suggesting Warner was a much smaller figure in the cheating scandal than originally claimed by Cricket Australia. If this is true, they should provide the evidence.
In the meantime, if Warner wants to be taken seriously he should either accept that he cheated and cop the punishment he was given, or try to have the leadership ban overturned by going through a review process – even if it is public.
