The fall, rise and fall of David Warner: Once revered now reviled, how the beleaguered Bull went one fight too far

As a ban for Australia’s ball-tampering scandal looms, Warner faces the prospect of watching his international career end before him just when it looked on the verge of its peak

Just a month ago, David Warner spoke candidly about his desire to take over the reins of Australia’s T20 outfit on a permanent basis, and it wasn’t a ridiculous notion.

“We spoke about one of us in the leadership group staying back (in Australia) and leading the T20 team, and obviously I put my hand up for that,” Warner said back in February.

After something of an eventful few weeks, even by Warner’s standards, talk has now shifted to whether the ‘Bull’ is to become an unlikely scapegoat as Cricket Australia’s administrators scramble to put their now legendary crisis management plans in to operation.

Having led Australia to No 2 in the International Cricket Council [ICC] T20 rankings in the recent series against New Zealand, there’s every possibility that Warner could be one of the tallest trees to be felled in what will be a headline heavy build-up to the fourth test against South Africa.

As if the ‘hacks’ need any more encouragement, it’s to be played at Johannesburg’s famous ‘Bullring’.

With sources inside the Australian team proffering the earth shattering news that Warner has left the team WhatsApp group, is it time to ask whether Warner can come back from the latest scandal to dent his international legacy? With the batsman halfway through his 32nd year, the answer is probably yes.

Controversy has defined and permeated a career which has seen the destructive opener amass 12,498 runs across the three international formats. Now, it seems Warner’s fellow players have reacted badly to being implicated in the ball tampering plot, with The Sydney Morning Herald suggesting he may have reached the end of the international road.


 Warner arrives at Cape Town International Airport ahead of Australia's flight to Johannesburg 
 (Reuters)

The pantomime nature of the histrionics with South Africa’s Quinton de Kock in Durban was further evidence of Warner having rescinded his temporary reverential exterior in favour of what comes more naturally to him.

Since his meteoric rise to the test ascendency, off the back of blistering white ball form in 2011, Warner’s career has been a timeline of Jekyll and Hyde-ness. The bullishness that embodies his approach has all too often spilled over in to moments of sheer nonsense, with the 2013 Joe Root punch a ‘best in class’ example.

If Warner is to be banned, he’ll be a ‘man with options’ as he made patently clear during the ugly pay dispute with Cricket Australia last year.

Smith and Warner became the highest paid Australians ever in the Indian Premier League [IPL] at the 2018 auction, as both were retained by their franchises for an eye watering $AUD 2.4m apiece. Money talks in the modern professional game, and it’s not inconceivable that Warner could walk away from the baggy green for good in favour of lucrative global alternatives should he receive a lengthy ban.

Warner is believed to have left the team WhatsApp group (Getty)

Warner’s Cricket Australia contract is worth more than $AUD 900,000-a-year, with sponsorships and endorsements supplementing that figure further. However, as England’s Ben Stokes found out shortly after his alleged Bristol affray, sponsors won’t hang around a bad smell for long.

A potential qualm for Warner, should a ban from Cricket Australia spark his freelancing career, is the board’s power to refuse him the Non Objection Certificates (NOCs) he would need to participate in the endless T20 competitions. This is unlikely, but not an implausible outcome.

A month is a long time in sport. The last two days have probably felt like a month for both Warner and Smith. The deity like status both players seem to enjoy and relish so much is fragile, with ex-players and fans alike keen to weigh in on an issue which has shaken Australia’s national sport to its core.

Warner is facing up to a year-long ban from Cricket Australia (Reuters)

The next few days could see wrists slapped or careers defined as a result of what has been universally settled upon as an entirely stupid and avoidable PR disaster. It remains to be seen whether Warner’s time as an international man of controversy are done.