Perhaps prejudiced, but Johnson right in saying Warner doesn't deserve 'hero send-off'

Was Johnson right in saying, Warner doesn’t deserve a ‘hero send-off’? Perhaps, yes

Wednesday, Dec 6, 2023 4:14 pm

As Warner vs Johnson controversy takes new turns with each passing day, it’s important to know, why Warner doesn’t deserve ‘hero send-off’.

“As we prepare for David Warner’s farewell series, can somebody please tell me why? Why a struggling Test opener gets to nominate his own retirement date.“

“And why a player at the center of one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricket history warrants a hero’s send-off?”

These rather inflammatory words by former Australia fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, on David Warner, have divided the cricketing fraternity extensively. Ex-cricketers, the current ones, and the onlookers, all have a take on the matter, which isn’t taking the debate anywhere, since Warner anyways will play his last Test against Pakistan, in front of the home crowd, at the SCG. Yet, whatever Johnson has said, holds some weight, however prejudiced it may be.

On both accounts, conduct, and form, Warner isn’t the player that Australia should look to celebrate. Look, there’s hardly any doubt that Warner remains one of the best openers Australia has ever produced, alongside Mark Taylor, Matthew Hayden, and Justin Langer, but the Sandpaper Gate has certainly taken a bit of sheen off his otherwise sparkling career. Cheating, in the end, is cheating, and cannot be justified at any cost. After serving the ban, and making a comeback to the national side, Warner did no saintly thing but followed the only way out for him.

David Warner’s Ordinary Test Numbers Since 2021

While many might not agree with the previous argument based on morality, which is fine, Warner’s Test career in the last few years has been a bit of a drag-on. In 2021, in the five Tests played, he scored 307 runs at an average of a little over 38. Just two fifties came his way that year, with no centuries. As for 2022, his form dipped even further, and in 11 Tests, he scored only 571 runs, averaging 30. Those numbers include a 200, against South Africa. And in 2023, the form continued to take a hit, where his average dropped to a poor 28. In the nine Tests till now, he has only 365 runs, with just two fifties to his name. With these numbers against his name, it would be folly to give him a ‘hero send-off’.

Warner Finds Support

The southpaw has received immense support from his opening partner Usman Khawaja, who feels Warner is ‘hero’, and has already paid his dues. “To say Dave Warner or anyone else involved in sandpaper (gate) is not a hero… I strongly disagree because they have paid their dues. A year out of cricket is a long time.” But paying the penalty for it doesn’t absolve him of the wrongdoing. Similarly, when Glenn Maxwell says, Warner is an ‘absolute champion of Australian cricket’, questions on his credentials as a cricketer were never raised. It is only a case of him acting rashly and irresponsibly while playing for his country.

But Irreparable Damage Already Done

While the ones supporting him are free to do so, but then the magnitude of what he did will always have a bearing on how history remembers him. Then Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull had famously said in 2018 at the time of the controversy, that it was “a shocking affront to Australia” and management must act “decisively and emphatically”. This makes it only more certain that the entire incident has done irreparable damage to Warner’s career and that will always remain, and whenever the ‘Sandpaper Gate’ becomes a topic of discussion again, his name will always be at the forefront.

Cricket