David Warner, one of the greatest ever openers across all three formats, retired from two of them after his final Test match against the West Indies a couple of weeks ago in Sydney. Warner, who is the second highest run-getter for Australia in international cricket, capped off what was an outstanding career in the two formats, despite a gap of one year following the ban imposed by Cricket Australia (CA).
Warner was among three players including Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft who were reprimanded in the aftermath, however, he was the only one to get a lifetime captaincy ban, even though he was the deputy then. It's been almost six years since the incident and Warner still is flummoxed about the ban as it stretched to contractual obligation under CA.
"It’s been five years, and I still don’t know how to answer the question. It’s just something that’s hard to get my head around. Apparently, I will be able to coach if allowed to in Australia. But I can’t captain. So yeah, I’m not sure what it is. It’s under contract with Australia. It’s a leadership position, so I’m not sure; I just don’t know. It’s very bizarre," Warner was quoted as saying to Code Sports.
"What’s the difference between captaining and coaching? You’ve got more responsibility as a coach, wouldn’t you think so? I don’t know, I’m not sure, I don’t know how to answer,” Warner added.
Warner, who has had a successful captaincy stint in the IPL for Sunrisers Hyderabad, having won a title and now for Delhi Capitals and Dubai Capitals in the International League T20, is known to be one of the sharpest minds, especially in white-ball cricket. However, Warner still fails to understand why was he handed the captaincy ban?
The then captain, Steve Smith was also given a leadership ban but of just one year and is currently Pat Cummins' deputy in Tests and ODIs and has even led Australia in a few matches when the pacer was unavailable.
