Why David Warner should be able to retire from Test cricket on his terms

In the wake of Mitchell Johnson’s swipe at Australian test opener David Warner, it’s time to revisit the ball tampering scandal and the toxic behaviour aimed at Warner’s wife that led to that decision.

After cricket great Mitchell Johnson called into question the legacy of Australia’s indomitable opener David Warner this week, including his right to a hero’s farewell to his cricketing career, I knew it was time to write this column.

Five years ago, Warner was involved in an infamous ball tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket.

It pains me immensely that his status in the game will always be viewed through the prism of a piece of sandpaper used on a ball in South Africa in 2018.

In a column, Johnson said Warner had not properly owned his role in the ball-tampering saga that resulted in him being banned for 12 months and thus he should not be able to dictate how he retires from Test cricket.

That incident was an embarrassment for cricket. But not in the way most people think.

Even looking back now, five years on, it’s incredible to me that people were more upset about ball tampering than by the disgusting attempt at shaming aimed at Warner’s remarkable wife, Candice, who is herself an incredible athlete.

The Australian team celebrates victory during the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup final match between Australia and New Zealand at Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 29, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Somehow it was deemed acceptable that masks of Sonny Bill Williams, with whom Candice once had a tryst in a hotel bathroom when she was a young woman, be allowed into the grounds during the Australian cricket team’s tour of South Africa, with two of the nation’s cricket officials even posing with fans who wore the masks.

On day four of the first test, Warner was involved in a staircase altercation with South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock after a “vile and disgusting” comment was made about Candice.

“It was just something that I don’t believe should have been said … (it was) out of line. I responded emotionally and regretted the way it played out, but I’ll always stick up for my family,” Warner said at the time.

It was this toxic environment in which the choice was made to tamper with the ball.

But for some reason, it was that silly decision to use a bit of sandpaper on a ball that caused the most outrage. Baffling isn’t it?

Let’s put that in perspective.

Other teams and players have copped fines and scrutiny for ball tampering over the years.

I doubt anyone but the most ardent cricket fans would be able to recall an exact incident, however, because when other teams do it, the nation’s cricket organisations protect their players and life moves on.

No nation has turned on its own players the way Australia did in 2018.

David Warner of Australia.

The memory of then-captain Steve Smith being reduced to tears over a stupid ball at a press conference in the days after the incident will always stay with me.

What a proud moment for a nation that pretends to support R U OK Day and other mental health initiatives but thinks nothing of bullying people into a state of anxiety over an issue that in the great scheme of things is less than nothing.

Of course, that’s exactly what happened when a photo emerged of Candice Warner and Williams after their brief encounter in 2007.

A media frenzy in which she became the object of ridicule; in which a young woman was reduced to complete despair, and for what? What did it achieve?

David Warner’s wife Candice Warner.

What satisfaction do we gain from judging and ridiculing others?

And why is using sandpaper on a cricket ball more serious than an attempt to humiliate a woman over a blameless encounter that happened more than a decade ago?

You’d think we would have evolved and maybe if the incident happened today, the reaction would be very different.

I’d like to think under the same circumstances, any Australian team would be on the first flight home rather than play against any nation that felt that behaviour from fans was appropriate on their home ground.

In short, David Warner deserves a hero’s farewell – and people who are more hung up over a piece of sandpaper than a shameful attack on a blameless woman should think twice.

Originally published as Why David Warner should be able to retire from Test cricket on his terms