"Felt disrespected": David Warner criticizes CA over captaincy ban controversy

David Warner was handed a lifetime ban on leadership duties in Cricket Australia (CA).

Australian opener David Warner has once again slammed Cricket Australia for the way they handled his appeal against the leadership ban on him in the aftermath of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal.

David Warner was slapped with a lifetime leadership ban by CA after his involvement in the infamous sandpaper ball-tampering scandal where he and Steve Smith were banned for one year from cricket. While Smith was banned from holding a leadership position in Australian cricket for two years, Warner had handed a lifetime leadership ban by their cricket governing body.

David Warner asked for a review of the lifetime prohibition on holding any type of leadership position last year. While CA revised its player code of conduct guidelines, which made it possible for him to ask an impartial panel of three code of conduct commissioners to appeal the captaincy ban.

Warner was not impressed with the public lynching and he expected that the proceedings should be done behind closed doors in private. Later, the Aussie star withdrew his appeal.

“It was ridiculous,” David Warner says Cricket Australia lacks leadership

The 36-year-old opener recently talked about the whole ordeal and lambasted Cricket Australia for their handling of the issue and stated that CA lacked leadership.

“It was ridiculous. I wanted to put it to bed and they kept on just dragging it out and not giving answers. No one wanted to be accountable, no one wanted to make a decision. You have an administration where there seemed to be a lack of leadership,” Warner told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australian batter said he felt disrespected by the way CA treated him as he was talking to his lawyers during the Test match.

“They could have nipped it in the bud straight away, but I’m getting a phone call day one, two, three of the Test matches and speaking to lawyers etc when I didn’t need to. I actually felt disrespected in the way that I wasn’t able to actually have a clear mind to play the game and concentrate on the game.

So from that perspective it wasn’t even like, ‘Oh, let’s stop and we’ll come back to this.’ It was nine months, it was launched in February (2022). I was extremely disappointed,” he added.

Warner is currently in England for the ICC World Test Championship final and the Ashes 2023.