David Warner has stepped down as the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain ahead of the Indian Premier League 2018 after he was found guilty in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, in a tweet, said they will announce the new captain shortly. In all likelihood, Warner will be replaced by India opener Shikhar Dhawan as skipper in the 11th edition of the league, which is starting on April 7. (Ball-tampering scandal: Cheaters Smith, Warner, Bancroft face 'significant sanctions')
The announcement on Warner is on expected lines and has come shortly after Steve Smith was replaced by Ajinkya Rahane as the captain of Rajasthan Royals in wake of the ball-tampering row that has rocked Australian cricket over the last week. (IPL 2018: Sunrisers Hyderabad strong enough to replace David Warner, says Wriddhiman Saha)
Warner, the Australian vice-captain, is one of the three players along with captain Smith and young opener Cameron Bancroft, who has been named in the ball-tampering row.
Warner on Wednesday lost one of his major commercial endorsements after Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland announced on Tuesday that Smith, Warner and Bancroft will be sent home from the tour of South Africa for their roles in planning and carrying out a ball tampering scheme in the third test in Cape Town.
Cricket Australia hasn't finalized sanctions for the three players, but lengthy bans are expected.
The actions of Smith and Warner, the leaders of the team, and Bancroft, a relative newcomer, have also reverberated through the cricketing world. Critics have pounced on the apparent hypocrisy of an Australian team that often held itself up as the moral compass of the game.
Warner, a pugnacious batsman who has a long lost list of disciplinary infractions in his career, was on Tuesday confirmed by Sutherland as being part of the plot for the first time officially.
Australian news outlets reported Warner had become a more central figure in the investigation, had fallen out with teammates and could face a lengthy ban.
Smith, the star of Australian cricket after leading the team to a 4-0 Ashes rout of England a few months ago, is expected to be fired as captain.
All three face hefty bans considering the damage caused to reputation of Australian cricket and the humiliation.
Smith and Bancroft confessed that, after a discussion during a break in play, they decided they would try to change the condition of the ball during the third test using a piece of yellow adhesive tape and some dirt collected from the side of the pitch. Bancroft was tasked to do the on-field tampering but botched it when he was caught by television cameras doing the tampering and then trying to hide the tape down the front of his trousers. The evidence from the TV cameras was overwhelming.
Australia also lost the test by a crushing 322 runs.
Tim Paine has taken over as captain of the team for the fourth test in South Africa starting on Friday, with Smith, Warner and Bancroft on a flight home Wednesday morning. Their places in the Australia squad will be taken by Matt Renshaw and Joe Burns, who helped their Queensland state clinch the domestic cricket title on Tuesday, and Glenn Maxwell.
