Respect David's wish to be heard behind closed doors: Cricket Australia on Warner's withdrawal of leadership ban review appeal
Dec 07, 2022
Melbourne [Australia], December 8 : Cricket Australia (CA) on Wednesday expressed disappointment with star opener David Warner's decision to withdraw his application to get his lifetime leadership ban reviewed.
Warner was banned from taking over any leadership positions for his lifetime after the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal back in 2018. 4 years later, Warner hoped of being reconsidered as national side's skipper after an independent review.
But on Wednesday, he announced his decision to withdraw his appeal, calling out the relevant panel for wanting to have a public hearing instead of a private one, as preferred by Warner and the board.
On Instagram, the 36-year-old posted a lengthy message saying that he does not want to put his family through the scrutiny that comes with a public hearing.
"Regrettably, I have no practical alternative at this point in time but to withdraw my application," Warner said on social media as quoted by ICC.
"I am not prepared to subject my family or my teammates to further trauma and disruption by accepting a departure from the way in which my application should be dealt with pursuant to the Code of Conduct."
"Some things are more important than cricket," concluded Warner.
CA showed support for Warner via a statement after his social media post.
"We are disappointed with this outcome as our intention was to give David the opportunity to demonstrate why his lifetime leadership ban should be varied at an independent hearing and we amended our Code of Conduct accordingly," the statement read.
"We supported David's wish for these discussions to be heard behind closed doors and respect his decision to withdraw his application."
"David is a very senior and highly regarded member of the Australian team who has been a great ambassador for the game as a whole since his return from a year-long ban," concluded the statement.
Pat Cummins currently leads Australia in Tests and ODIs, while Aaron Finch is the T20I captain.
