Feud may be behind David Warner’s IPL axing

David Warner’s axing from SRH has stunned IPL observers, who say it might be an issue between the player and management.

David Warner, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s most successful player, has been dropped

Intrigue lingers in the wake of David Warner’s shock axing from the Sunrisers Hyderabad, with suggestions of a falling out behind the scenes.

Former Hyderabadplayer Dale Steyn said there was “something going on there” as commentators lined up to question the decision.

Warner was, to the surprise of the cricketing world, stripped of the captaincy and dropped from his side for the IPL franchise’s game on Sunday night.

The move had no discernible impact on the Sunrisers’ fortunes as new captain Kane Williamson struggled with the bat and the side was soundly beaten by the Rajasthan Royals.

Warner busied himself running drinks and was keen to offer advice and support to his teammates during the match. He was last seen putting empty drink bottles into a rubbish bin on the sidelines.

Coach Trevor Bayliss noted the former captain’s positive response around the group but appeared to indicate that axing the star hamstrung the side.

“It was very challenging obviously without David as a player — but a new captain, I don’t think there’ll be too much of a problem there,” he said. “Kane’s captained before in the last two or three years. We just didn’t play very well.”

There are indications Warner may have fallen out with the team’s coaching/ownership set-up which is led by Bayliss, Tom Moody, VVS Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Warner appeared to criticise the decision to drop Indian batsman Manish Pandey ahead of a game against the Chennai Super Kings last Friday. But he took full responsibility for the loss of that game, after he scored his slowest ever T20 half century.

In a videos released after that game, Moody, the director of coaching, noted Warner’s decision to bat first was a mistake.

Moody said that the former opener and captain had thrown himself into supporting the side after his initial disappointment over being axed.

The director of coaching said the move was “purely a decision based on combinations” and Warner had to pay the price. Bayliss said the same.

Warner has been Hyderabad’s leading player since joining in 2014, topping the tournament’s run-scoring twice and leading them to a championship.

Steyn, the former South African star, said it was understandable perhaps to take the captaincy off Warner with the franchise wallowing at the bottom of the IPL table, but he found it strange to drop him as a batsman.

“It’s strange, when you think of Sunrisers you think of two players, right now I think of Rashid Khan and I think of Warner,” he told Cricingo. “In the past when you think of Sunrisers you’d just think David Warner straight up.

“It’s his orange army (the fan base) so it’s very strange to not see him part of an XI. There’s something going on there, I don’t know what’s going on there.

“It’s strange to see him not in the starting XI. To give up the captaincy may be one thing, Kane is a great captain for New Zealand and he has done it many times for Sunrisers, but you would still want him in the XI. He is still such a destructive player, he’s great in the field, he’s great at giving advice and he is a phenomenal batsman.

“Sometimes these captaincy things happen, but to be completely omitted from the XI is a strange thing.”

New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori came out in support of Warner for the second day running.

“David Warner is the heart and soul of the Sunrisers, he’s been so successful for such a long time, he’s won a championship for them, he’s won an Orange Cap (tournament’s highest run scorer) because he’s such a destructive top-order batsman,” he told Cricinfo.

“He’s never really let them down as a captain or as a batsman or as a fielder. The effort or energy he puts into every game is incredible.

“That’s the captaincy side of things, but removing him from a playing XI takes a lot to work through. You could argue that David Warner is the best overseas batsman ever to play in the IPL.

“For him to fall from that level there is obviously something, there’s a big think tank involved in Sunrisers from Tom Moody, Trevor Bayliss, VVS Laxman, Muralitharan.”