The legendary Ian Chappell lambasted Cricket Australia for the way it handled the David Warner's captaincy issue and accused the board of "protecting its own backside".
"They (CA) look after themselves, they don't look after the player. This (Warner saga) is just another example of Cricket Australia not being very good, it has been handled badly," he said.
"My point is that Cricket Australia will never do anything in the interest of the players or the player; they will only ever do anything to protect their own backside," he added.
- Why was Warner slammed with a ban of lifetime captaincy?
In the year 2018, Steve Smith and David Warner were found guilty in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. While former skipper Steve Smith was stripped of the captaincy and banned from leading Australia for two years, Warner was slammed with a lifelong leadership ban.
Warner, Smith, and batter Cameron Bancroft were banned from playing domestic or international cricket as punishment for their roles in the infamous ball-tampering scandal. Warner and Smith had been banned for one year, while Bancroft was suspended for nine months.
- David Warner's manager James Erskine allegations:
In the infamous ball-tampering scandal, David Warner's manager James Erskine has claimed that CA officials allowed players to tamper with ball more than a year before the sandpaper gate scandal broke out in 2018.
"Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart and basically were berating the team for losing against South Africa," Erskine said.
"He (Warner) has shut up, he protected Cricket Australia, he protected his fellow players ... because at the end of the day no one wanted to hear any more of it and he’s got on playing cricket," he further added.
- Former Australia captain Michael Clarke also accused his country's cricket board of making David Warner the "scapegoat" in its messy handling of his captaincy ban following the ball-tampering scandal:
Backing his former teammate, Clarke said Cricket Australia's review of the scandal has been inconsistent.
"You can tell he’s disappointed and frustrated,” Clarke said. "I think the other thing that probably hurts a little bit more is the fact Steve Smith is going to captain this Test match."
- However, Chappell also believes there is no point in lifting David Warner's lifetime captaincy ban as he feels that age is not in favour of the star left-hander.
"If Cricket Australia were to lift the ban on Warner, what's that going to do? I mean, you're not going to appoint Warner captain of any Australian team, are you? He's too old," Chappell was quoted.
"And he's not going to be given the role because the captain has got to be young enough to be able to lead by example, and those days are gone for David."
- The former Australia skipper feels Warner wanted his captaincy ban to be lifted as he wanted to lead his BBL side Sydney Thunder.
"I think David probably wanted the leadership for his BBL team (the Sydney Thunder) so that he could help them," Chappell said.
"He (Warner) would have been a very good leader for them, he thinks very aggressively about the game. Whatever leadership position he had, he would be good at it.
