Cricket Australia is sick of David Warner’s b******t and may never welcome him back

WHEN David Warner is sentenced to a lengthy ban there will not be a single tear shed in the offices of Cricket Australia. And it’s a safe bet he won’t be missed if we never see him in Australian colours again, writes Robert Craddock.

THE question is no longer whether David Warner deserves to be banned. It is whether he deserves to come back.

Warner is set to face a lengthy ban for his role as the prime architect of the ball tampering affair and it will be a sentence well deserved.

When that bans ends two questions will need to be answered ... “does he still want to play for them?’’ and “do they really want him back?’’

Both are vexed issues.

Cricket Australia are all but finished with David Warner.

Steve Smith has these challenges as well but for some reason, for all of his squabbles with his senior teammates he threw under a bus, there is a feeling he will slip back into the national team somewhere, perhaps playing the senior professional role Ricky Ponting performed after he stood down as captain but continued to play.

But Warner’s future is more complex.

LISTEN! A special ball tampering crisis Cricket Unfiltered episode is out with News Corp’s Russell Gould and Andrew Menczel dissecting the fallout of the Australian cheating scandal.

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When Warner was made vice-captain of his country one of the prime reasons for his elevation was the fear that if he missed out on the job he could potentially be a totally disruptive influence on the side.

Better to have him inside the tent firing the bullets into the distance than the other way round, they thought.

It was flawed logic by the selectors and the board and Australia now confronts the scenario it dreaded ... Warner being banned for a long time then returning as an isolated, potentially angry man to a team trying to create a new image.

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If Warner did play another Test it would not be as a senior leader but as a relic of a stained era and you wonder how he would gel with a team trying to move on from the mess he helped create.

The wounds from this issue will be deep and long-lasting.

Players and coaches have turned against each other.

Long term friendships are being smashed like a dropped glasses on a bar room floor.

When Warner is banned there will not be a single tear shed in the offices of Cricket Australia where many of the high ranking staff cannot stand him.

David Warner in a heated exchange with a fan in Cape Town. Picture: Fox Sports

And they have never forgotten the way he taunted Cricket Australia during the pay dispute, showing a cringing lack of appreciation for what they had done for him and how they had tolerated his excesses.

CA officials have also had enough of the bluff and bullshit around Warner’s public image.

Last summer he had a press conference claiming how disappointed he was in Faf du Plessis’s ball tampering and how disappointed he would be if it ever happened in the Australian side.

A year later he is doing the deed himself.

One minute he is being portrayed as The Reverend with a moral compass somewhere between Mother Teresa and the Pope.

David Warner is restrained by teammates during the second Test.

The next he is bombarding Quentin de Kock with offensive sledges until the South African finally cracks and goes below the belt.

Cricket fans don’t mind rebels and they don’t mind do-gooders but they do struggle to accept it when they come in the one self-righteous, flip-flopping, two-toned package.

Journalists who wrote stories about Warner being The Reverend became laughing stocks among players who would say things like “so you really think he has changed, do you?’’

Cricket Australia knew Warner’s style well when they made him vice-captain.

Sometimes in life you get what you deserve.

David Warner’s short-lived career as The Reverend.