Published: Oct 20, 2017, 01:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 20, 2017, 01:16 PM (IST)
India and Australia contests have seen some of the most sparking controversies. The Border-Gavaskar trophy earlier this year had its share. Skippers Virat Kohli and Steven Smith were at center of things and by the end of the series, Kohli admitted that some of the Australian cricketers “were no longer” his friends.
Once upon a time, David Warner ruled the sledgers list in international cricket but his dates with troubles and suspension have changed him for the last few years. Marriage and going strict on alcohol too has contributed to the cause.
Will we see the old Warner in the upcoming Ashes? We might. Ahead of the high-profile series, Warner clarified his on-field spat with Rohit Sharma during India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15.
Angry Martin Crowe
The incident sparked serious controversy and the now late Martin Crowe had slammed Warner for his antics. A section even termed Warner a racist.
Crowe, always a visionary, had then called for red and yellow cards. He had then written in his ESPNCricinfo column: “Watching from the luxury of my couch and after hearing numerous accounts from respected cricket people, there is a growing concern that David Warner’s thuggish behaviour has gone too far. Soon one day it will lead to an incident that will sully the game for good.
As Ian Chappell has said often recently, soon enough someone will get king-hit on a cricket field. Warner may just be the one who gets pinned by someone in retaliation. And if it is him who gets hammered, it will be overdue – if wrong.
No one, let alone an umpire, who has enough on his plate in the international game, wants to have to reprimand or babysit a bunch of boorish, childish adults during play for these ugly spats that are becoming commonplace.”
Warner opened up on the Rohit incident and mentioned that was the turning point after which he stopped. He however clarified the point he was trying to make.
“After the Rohit Sharma incident (I stopped). I felt I had a valid point there, because if I’m going to swear in a different language on the big screen, nobody is going to do something about it. But if I said what he was saying to me, in English, and you could lip read me — I’ll still get in trouble anyway,” Warner was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
“That’s where I was really disappointed with what happened. Everybody interpreted it the way I actually said. It wasn’t being racist or anything like that. I just clearly wanted him to swear at me in English so everyone else could hear what he was saying.”
The Ashes ‘war’ statement
Warner was too soft for Mitchell Johnson’s liking in the Ashes 2015. Johnson went on to mention about the same in his autobiography. Warner hinted he could go back to his old self in order to reclaim the urn. His statement on ‘war’ and developing ‘hatred’ for English cricketers was widely criticised by former English cricketers. But the Australian vice-captain won’t stop here.
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“I’ll be doing everything I can to make sure that when we’re out there, we’ve got a lot of energy and buzz. Whether that’s being vocal or with my intent batting and in the field. When it comes to the Ashes, it’s a massive thing for us,” he said before clarifying his ‘hatred’ comment, “Given what happened in India, given the IPL and county cricket. Everyone’s mates, we are mates, but sometimes you have to really try and work a way out to actually build some kind of — I used the word ‘hatred’ the other day. But some dislike, make things a little bit uncomfortable for blokes when they’re out there.”
