The lengthy process of reconsidering the opener’s leadership suspension has been criticized, but David Warner continues to garner support for the role of captain of Australia’s Twenty20 team. Players’ union president Shane Watson has excoriated the length of the process.
As soon as Australia starts looking forward to the Twenty20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean in 2024, the officials will likely be obliged to make another leadership decision within the next few months. Have fun watching the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup 2022 matches that are being held in Australia; getting closer to the semifinals and finals this week.
Aaron Finch has not yet made a decision on his future after retiring from one-day internationals (ODIs) in September; nevertheless, given that Australia will not play another Twenty20 match until August 2023, it is quite improbable that he will play for the country again.
In the past, Warner has been the captain of the Australian cricket team.
At the start of 2018, just about a month before the ball-tampering controversy that led to him being banned as a captain for life, he was in command of a Twenty20 tri-series against England and New Zealand.
As a result of the fact that Cricket Australia has requested that their head of integrity propose a reform to their code of conduct that will enable a review of previous bans, it is quite likely that this sentence will be reconsidered in the very near future.
Watson told reporters, “I’ve had an opinion on who should have been the short-term T20 World Cup captain for a while, and that’s David Warner,” Watson was referring to the short-term captaincy for the T20 World Cup.
“But that seems to have been caught up in the bureaucracy of Australian cricket because of a couple of lines of a code of conduct legal document.
“For me, David Warner is an excellent decision-maker under pressure, tactually he’s very good, he’s a very good leader and he’s very experienced as well.
“I’m just disappointed that for his sake he hasn’t had an opportunity to lead the Aussies because he’s a very good leader.
“Obviously it’s not a long-term solution, but another T20 World Cup is coming up in a few years and Dave is still going to be performing very well.”
After Watson and many other officials from the Australian Cricketers Association wrote to the CA board in February, much of this year has been spent speculating about whether or not Warner would be banned from leadership positions.
The issue has been making news again since Warner, who is now 36 years old, inked a contract to play in the Big Bash League. Warner has claimed on many occasions that he would want to meet with CA to discuss the subject.
Before it was made public that a modification to the code of conduct would be necessary for any review to take place, Cummins and Finch both voiced their support for Warner’s appeal to have his suspension overturned.
The CA board of directors then took the initiative to open the door for a review earlier this month by requesting that the head of integrity, Jacqui Partridge, suggest an amendment to the code.
These proposed amendments have been presented to the board for approval in advance of any prospective review of the restriction that Simon Longstaff, the ethics commissioner, may carry out.
“How hard is it to change one or two lines in a legal document to make sure that someone who has paid for his mistakes and then some (can captain the side)? Watson stated.
“The code of conduct documents can be changed by someone in two seconds.”
What are your opinions on Watson’s recommendation that Warner replace Aaron Finch as captain, who has been accused of ball tempering against England and New Zealand in 2018? Let us know in the comments below!
Jane Davies
