Cricket Australia respond quickly to Warner’s decision on leadership ban

Cricket Australia have moved swiftly to release a public statement after David Warner’s decision to withdraw his application to have his lifetime leadership ban reviewed.

Warner received the ban for his part in the Cape Town ball tampering affair back in 2018, but the 36-year-old had been hoping he would be able to be considered to lead the national team following an independent review.

However, the Australia opener took to social media on Wednesday to declare he had opted to retract his application for review, calling out the relevant panel for wanting to have the hearing conducted in public rather than his – and Cricket Australia’s – preference for it be held in private.

Warner used his Instagram account to post a lengthy message in relation to his decision, claiming he did not want to put his family through the scrutiny of a public hearing.

“Regrettably, I have no practical alternative at this point in time but to withdraw my application,” Warner said on social media.

“I am not prepared to subject my family or my teammates to further trauma and disruption by accepting a departure from the way in which my application should be dealt with pursuant to the Code of Conduct.

“Some things are more important than cricket.”

And Cricket Australia wasted no time in showing their support for Warner in a statement released after Warner’s social media post.

“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 statement read.

“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.”