A frustrated David Warner Monday said he was “not a criminal” and everyone should have the right to appeal as Cricket Australia paved the way for his lifetime leadership ban to be lifted.
A frustrated David Warner Monday said he was “not a criminal” and everyone should have the right to appeal as Cricket Australia paved the way for his lifetime leadership ban to be lifted.
The great opener and former Test vice-captain were banned from any leadership role in Australia over his part in the Cape Town ball-tampering affair in 2018.
But under an amendment to CA’s code of conduct affirmed on Monday, he will now be able to request a review of the sanction, a move previously not permitted.
Speaking at a promotion event for Kayo Sports on Monday that was not organized by CA Warner vented his frustration.
“I’m not a criminal,”
Warner said.
“You should get a right of an appeal at some stage. I understand that they put a ban in place but banning someone for life, I think it’s a bit harsh.
“Where it’s been disappointing, it’s taken this long to get to where it has. It was brought up in I think February this year. So it’s been drawn out. It’s traumatic for me and my family and everyone else that was involved in it. We haven’t needed to go back into that detail. We don’t need to relive what happened.”
“It’s frustrating because we could have done this about nine months ago when it was first brought up,”
Warner said.
“It’s unfortunate that obviously, Finchy retired, and then they sort of fast-tracked it in their way. But it’s a tad disappointing that when you decide in 2018, it’s in four days, and then this takes nine months.
“So that’s the hardest thing. It makes me look like I’m campaigning, which I’m not. So from my perspective, that’s where it’s been disappointing.
“But it’s good to get in a position where we are now today. And it allows me to ring up the integrity unit to therefore have a word to them and put forward my case of I guess, the 100 hours [of community service] that I did in 2018 for what happened. Basically, all this good behavior stuff that I’ve done, I think I have to put forward so I’m happy to do that.”