David Warner ends his spectacular Test cricket career swinging from the lip
Few players change the game. Shane Warne did. And Adam Gilchrist redefined the role of wicketkeeper as David Warner did opening the batting. Yet he’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Australia opening bat David Warner plays his 112th and farewell Test match this week at the SCG, and the old game of cricket will never be the same.
Few players change the game.
Shane Warne did.
And Adam Gilchrist redefined the role of wicketkeeper as Warner did opening the batting.
Warner’s records for Australia across all three forms of cricket are spectacular, a favourite being the 100 runs he scored before lunch on the opening day of the 2017 SCG Test v Pakistan, the touring rivals again this week.
Only two other Australians have done that: Victor Trumper in 1902 and Don Bradman in 1930. That’s right, Victor Trumper and The Don.
“If you have a fear of failure you’re going to fail,” says Warner, who announced on Monday he’s also retiring from one-day cricket. “I don’t have goals – I have systems.”
Some 15 years ago next week he became the first man since 1877 to be selected for Australia before playing any first-class cricket.
Yet David Warner is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Many sportspeople come from where he is from, but they have changed along the way. He has not changed an iota.
From the very beginning he was taught to fight for everything, and there’s no doubt he’ll go out swinging.
Warner has been playing cricket with Usman Khawaja since they were seven years old and together they’ll walk out for the final time to open the batting for Australia this week at the SCG.
“I can say to my subcontinental brothers and sisters, the ones who do speak Hindi and Urdu, my mum used to call him Shaitan,” Khawaja says of Warner.
“That translates to the devil, but my mum loved the devil. My mum says, ‘He is Shaitan, but I love that Shaitan.’
“I think I can get a little bit more out of Davey because I’ve known him for such a long time. Davey growing up was the biggest pest you’ve ever met. What he is now times 100.”
As a little kid Khawaja lived with his family in the flats along the eastern side of the SCG. He didn’t speak English and when the crowds roared at the cricket he’d come outside and listen and wonder.
Up the road and further east at Matraville, Warner lived in a Housing Commission unit with brother Steve and parents Lorraine and Howard.
At 14 years and nine months he left school because that was the age you were first allowed to legally leave school, and began stacking the shelves at Woolworths to help out at home.
He loved working, and he loved Woolworths where he stayed for six years before cricket won out over soccer, tennis and rugby.
You’d hear people talking about this short-arsed teenager from the Housos who could hit the ball to kingdom come, and I clearly remember the former NSW Shield captain Brad McNamara saying: “See that kid over there, he’ll play for Australia.”
IPL franchise Delhi secretly signed him to play in India and suddenly he was picked to play in that T20 against South Africa on January 11, 2009, with zip first-class experience.
“Dale Steyn and Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini … I played with the same freedom I’d always played with … a kid with no experience debuting for his country is not supposed to be hitting into the 12th row of the MCG stands,” said Warner.
“I remember walking out with Shaun Marsh. And we’d left Ricky Ponting in the change-rooms. With me, I don’t get taken aback with famous people. Never have.
“Immediately I felt at home, doing what I love to do. I just tried to hit every ball for six. I didn’t realise there was an art to building an innings.”
Many believe that first Warner innings at the MCG changed the attitude and expectations of T20 Cricket with record television audiences carrying through to almost every night of summer 15 years on.
Along the way Warner polarised at times, first with his attack-dog role towards oppositions of struggling Australia teams with relatively low-key characters.
And then the ball-tampering fiasco in 2018, the opener coming back to win the Allan Border Medal as Australia’s best in 2020 and scoring 335 runs v Pakistan at Adelaide Oval.
Forever batting the way every cricketer would love to bat if only they had the ability, the courage and self-belief to give it a shot.
“Whenever I’m in a sticky situation I know I have to find an exit path,” he says. “Imagine I’m in a brown paper bag, I’m thinking I’ve gotta get out of here. I need to find a way out of this situation.”
Warner should have been caught out in the first over of the Boxing Day Test but the sitter was dropped. He escaped. And instead of going into his shell he took the opportunity to pounce.
Every run he scored after that was an extra run for his team. We could hear him laughing to Khawaja as he exited for 38.
“I should have been out first over,” he said, waving his arms with delight. Shaitan.
“If you play for the Australia cricket team you might earn more money than playing for NSW but it doesn’t matter because all that matters is playing the game you love.
“I always think in the back of my mind I’m not just playing for my country and family and friends, I’m playing for where I came from. That’s why I always give my gloves to the kids on the fence on the way out. Not everyone can afford to play cricket and get the gear you need. My uncle gave me my first bat and I’m forever grateful.
“I’m a big giver. And I never forget.”
Steve Crawley is managing director of Fox Sports Australia
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