A huge crowd at Sydney Cricket Ground bid farewell to legendary Australian batter David Warner on Saturday, January 6. Warner scored a brilliant fifty as Australia beat Pakistan in the last Test match of the series to register a 3-0 clean sweep.
Fans crowded SCG stands on Day 4 as Australia chased down a 130-run target with Warner and Marnus Laguschagne hitting quick fifties. Fans and players applauded Warner for his contribution to red-ball cricket after Australia's thumping win.
Warner, with his family by his side, thanked everyone present for giving him a memorable farewell at his home ground.
"Massive part of your life and without their support you can't do what you do," Warner said. "I owe credit to my parents for giving me a beautiful and great upbringing. My brother Steve, and I followed in his footsteps. And then Candice came along and sort of got me in line. We've had a beautiful family and I cherish every moment I get with them. I love them to death and I'm not going to keep carrying on because I'll get too emotional. But thank you, Candace, for what you've done. You mean the world to me, and I appreciate it. I think it'd be quite emotional to watch the guys go out there and not play and knowing that I was able to come out here and do what I could do."
The 37-year-old batter also talked about his teammates and his strong relationship with them. He played out the importance of red-ball cricket and termed it as a pinnacle of the sport. Cricket Australia recently declared their intentions to prioritise Test cricket in the future and Warner also asked young rising cricketers to work hard to play Test.
But as I just mentioned you got a great bunch of cricketers here. We are all almost over 30 years of age. So as time goes by, we're not getting younger, but this team, they're energetic, they're world-class and they're a great bunch of guys. [Would like to be remembered as] exciting, and entertaining, and I hope I put a smile on everyone's face with the way that I played and hopefully, the young kids out there can follow in my footsteps. White ball cricket to Test cricket. It's the pinnacle of our sport. So keep working hard to play the red ball game because it's entertaining as well," Warner added.
Warner scored 57 runs off 75 balls in his last Test innings before getting dismissed on an LBW by Sajid Khan. After losing Usman Khawaja in the first over, Warner and Labuschagne added 119 runs for the second wicket to help Australia clinch a dominating eight-wicket win to conclude the series.
