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David Warner’s explosive statement – ‘Don’t want my family to be washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry’

Australian opener David Warner has withdrawn his application for his captaincy ban review while issuing a five-page-long explosive statement with the title “My family is more important to me than cricket.” Warner has come down heavily on the legal counsel, who was assisting the independent committee review his lifetime captaincy ban saying that the comments made by the said counsel were offensive and unhelpful. Warner went to the extent of saying that the review panel acted opposite to Cricket Australia’s (CA) findings and want to conduct a public spectacle out of him at the expense of his family.
“I am not prepared for my family to be the washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry,” Warner wrote as part of a long and detailed statement while attacking the review panel and the counsel. The 36-year-old said that the panel threatened to expose him and his family to more humiliation and admitted that he no longer wants to be a part of ‘public lynching’.
After the alterations made by Cricket Australia to their Code of Conduct, Warner was eligible to appeal his lifetime captaincy ban, however, the experience has left a sour taste in his mouth, so much so that he now will not be able to lead his country ever.
Warner was handed a lifetime captaincy ban by Cricket Australia following the findings in the ‘Sandpaper Gate’ scandal following the ball tampering incident when opener Cameron Bancroft was found rubbing sandpaper to the ball in the third Test at Newlands, Cape Town against South Africa. While Smith and Warner were handed 1-year bans, Bancroft was given a 9-month penalty. Smith also received a leadership ban of couple of years but having served his term and despite all his efforts to get back into the reckoning with sensational performances across all formats, Warner wasn’t able to get the lifetime ban imposed on him, retracted.

Warner’s full statement

“My family is more important to me than cricket,”
“Over the course of the past nearly five years since the events that occurred during the Third Test in Cape Town, even with all the humiliation and attacks that they have had to endure, I have enjoyed the unwavering support and love of my wife Candice and my three daughters, Ivy Mae, Indi Rae, and Isla Rose. They are my world.
“Since that Test and even though my ban from leadership roles may never be lifted, I have taken it upon myself to reform, to rehabilitate and to transform my approach to the game.
“I have served and been subject to a crushing, unprecedented, penalty that has horribly impacted me and my family for the past nearly five years — without the prospect of any relief until now.
“I held the hope and was encouraged that I would be given a proper opportunity to demonstrate to the review panel that I have demonstrated my deep regret and remorse, and that my rehabilitation and transformation are profound.
“I hoped I would be given the opportunity, under the established practice and procedure of the code of conduct that is reflected in the amendments, to demonstrate that I have satisfied the necessary requirements for a modification to my ban and that I might be permitted to see out the balance of my career without the yoke hanging around my neck and further anguish for my family.
” Despite my opposition and that of Cricket Australia, on Tuesday last week Counsel Assisting the Review Panel and the Review Panel took it upon themselves to concoct an irregular procedure (overturning presumptions and previous practice) for the determination of my application and establish a novel approach that would negatively impact the health and welfare of my family and the interests of the Australian cricket team.
“In his submissions, Counsel Assisting made offensive and unhelpful comments about me that had absolutely no substantive purpose under the Code of Conduct.
“Regrettably, the Review Panel acted contrary to the submissions of Cricket Australia and my lawyer and appeared to adopt virtually entirely the position of Counsel Assisting.
“In effect, Counsel Assisting, and, it appears, to some extent the Review Panel, want to conduct a public trial of me and what occurred during the Third Test at Newlands. They want to conduct a public spectacle to, in the Panel’s words, have a ‘cleansing’. I am not prepared for my family to be the washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry.
“Counsel Assisting and the review panel appeared to be determined to revisit the events of March 2018 and the review panel appears determined to expose me and my family to further humiliation and harm by conducting a media circus. “
Warner says last Thursday he submitted a request for the review panel to change this procedure, and claims he had the support of Cricket Australia.
But that request was denied , and so Warner withdrew his application.
“It appears the panel has given no more than passing consideration to issues of player welfare and the interests of Australian cricket and is instead determined to conduct a public lynching.”

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