Veteran broadcaster Gerard Whateley has declared he stands firmly in David Warner’s corner and has similarly teed off at the alleged process for the Australian opener to overturn his leadership ban.
In a statement on Wednesday night, Warner called out Cricket Australia's appeals process he initially sought to take part in in the hopes of having his leadership ban from 2018 overturned. The 36-year-old said he will not draw his family into another media circus, claiming the independent panel wanted to conduct a public trial.
Warner believes that would turn into a “public lynching”. Less than a month after CA changed its policy to allow the Aussie veteran to contest his ban, the prospects now appear dead in the mud.
As Whateley notes, CA appears determined to move on from the sandpaper saga that rocked Australian cricket over four years ago. Yet the public hearing is a remarkable contradiction and an “unfair” input on Warner.
“My sympathies are absolutely with Warner in the way this has played out, and that’s probably the first time I’ve felt this way across the five years,” Whateley offered on SEN Mornings
“The idea that he raised of a cleansing, a public cleaning, that’s not the appeals process that he was encouraged to become a part of… I can’t see Warner as captain of Australia again, but I absolutely think he does have the right to go through a process to captain the (Sydney) Thunder in the BBL, where most would acknowledge he is a drawcard for a competition that desperately needs it.
“So CA has taken nine months to put together the process for him to be able to do that… they’ve come up with an independent panel, who it would appear from reading Warner’s statement, have decided that what they would like is a public hearing on what transpired with sandpaper… and I think Warner is right to depict that as it would degenerate into a lynch mob.
“It’s worth remembering that CA at the time had a really narrow investigation, a really narrow outcome and really narrow penalties, and they seemed to have such a distaste to discuss it publicly that the last time I asked the chief executive whether he had even read the report of the time, he wouldn’t answer that question.
“CA wants none of this public and all of a sudden, they’ve got their independent panel who would like to run a total public process for a cleansing.
“That’s wretchedly unfair for Warner.”
In response to Warner’s sentiment, CA issued a statement commenting on his withdrawing from the process.
“We are disappointed with this outcome as our intention was to give David the opportunity to demonstrate why his lifetime leadership ban should be varied at an independent hearing and we amended our Code of Conduct accordingly,” the CA statement said.
“We supported David’s wish for these discussions to be heard behind closed doors and respect his decision to withdraw his application.
“David is a very senior and highly regarded member of the Australian team who has been a great ambassador for the game as a whole since his return from a year-long ban.”
Warner in his statement questioned why “regular established procedures” had not been followed. Whateley too has now called on CA to take ownership of its process.
“I actually think independence in a moment like this is fraught with risk, it’s Cricket Australia’s business to deal with. Deal with it,” he said.
Whateley added: “I think the process has exploded now, and the only way this resolves is if CA actually takes control of it and has its own hearing and own finding and either lifts the lifetime ban or reinforces it. And do either, but do one, own it yourself, you were prepared to own it at the time.
“I’m absolutely supportive of the penalties that were handed down at the time... they had the fortitude to do it then, they should have the fortitude to do it now.”
Warner was famously cast as the instigator of the plan that saw Cameron Bancroft using sandpaper on the ball and was therefore handed a heftier ban than his colleagues.
Bancroft was banned for nine months, while Steve Smith and Warner received year-long bans. Smith was also handed an additional 12-month leadership ban, while Warner was never to be considered for a leadership role within Australian cricket again.
But Whateley added he held doubts over CA’s story and suggested the feeling was Warner’s truth on what happened would blow the situation wide open.
“It would be a public lynch, there’s no doubt about that. I think most of us who have any first-hand knowledge of the time don’t believe the version of events that have been agreed on in the public environment, and I take it that’s why CA never wants to address this in any way publicly,” the veteran broadcaster said.
He added: “It’s as poorly executed a judicial moment as I can think of in a major sport in this country”.
The development comes with Warner set to take to the field in Australia’s second Test against the West Indies on Thursday afternoon at Adelaide Oval.
CA CEO Nick Hockley will speak to Whateley and the SEN Cricket commentary team during Friday’s broadcast.