David Warner’s statement before training on Saturday afternoon, that he was looking to close his illustrious Test career at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in January 2024 has set the cricket world talking. From having spoken to people close to Warner, he hasn’t firmed up his mind just yet. As a very proud athlete, Warner could even call it a day after the Lord’s Test, the second of the Ashes series, if he thinks he isn’t contributing much anymore.
At the moment, however, he is feeling really good about his game and has his sights set on the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Having known Warner for years, I can say with certainty that he isn’t one to just hold on to his position. Even before the selectors take a call on his future, he will himself, if he feels that he doesn’t belong there at the highest level. Having achieved everything that there is for him to achieve in international cricket, Warner knows that nothing lasts forever. Having said that, he would want to finish on a high and have a really good home stretch. That’s what he is focussed on at the moment.
His outspokenness about Cricket Australia’s hypocrisy over the leadership issue hasn’t earned him many friends in high places. Yet again, it is Warner and his bat that will decide his future. And it is not the first time. For 12 years now, he has answered his detractors with his bat. This could well be the last time. He isn’t one to play for numbers, and that was best borne out on the eve of his 100th Test match.
“I did not think I would play one Test, leave alone one hundred,” he said when asked about his state of mind ahead of that 100th Test. “So you can well understand what it means to me and my family. I feel privileged, humbled and fulfilled.”
For Warner, cricket has been a rollercoaster. When he debuted in 2009 with a whirlwind 89 off 43 balls in a T20 contest, he was stamped a white-ball specialist. He wasn’t suited for Test cricket was the argument. Who first made that assertion, we don’t really know. It took him two years to break the stereotype, and make his red-ball debut for Australia against New Zealand.
People have written Warner off multiple times in his career. When he was sent home following the incident with Joe Root in England in 2013, many thought it was over for him. “I was at my lowest back then,” he once told me. “That’s when I met Candice, and she changed everything for me. I was never a morning person. I had discipline issues. She made me get into a routine. Value my training and my fitness. Instilled the hunger in me that I had lost. Helped me cope with the negativity, and I emerged a better person.”
With most, such things happen once. For Warner, the nightmare repeated itself in 2018 with Sandpapergate. The decision to not allow him to play IPL 2018 was the last straw. When we spoke then, I could barely hear his voice. It was as if I was speaking to a ghost. “I am not sure what I need to do or should do,” said a devastated Warner. “I don’t know if this is the real me. I have a family to look after, and that’s all I want to do. There are [media] people outside the house every single day, and it is tough mate.”
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His kids were very young, and one could only imagine what the family was going through. Yes, he had not cried in public. Put up a bold face. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t hurting. He was. Anyone would be. And here was someone who aspired to captain Australia, and was at the top of his game. All of a sudden, he was told that he would never be captain, and there was no guarantee he could make it back to international cricket after the ban. All that could go wrong had for Warner.
And yet again, he did not give up. “It was rough,” he said in the aftermath. “You know that. But I don’t regret anything. I am not perfect. Never have I claimed I was. You learn and you get better. That’s why we are human. Else, we would be gods.
“We play to entertain. We play to push for excellence. In 2018, I can tell you in all honesty that I was working the hardest and training the hardest I ever did. Not a single day did a miss. I was batting extremely well in the nets, and it was only a matter of time before it all started to work out. So yes, while it hurt, I knew I would have another opportunity. Sport is a great leveller and if you are true to the sport and keep working hard, you will always have a second chance. I just wanted to keep working the hardest and stay true. I am glad it worked out for me.”
And post-Sandpapergate, the comeback was the best one could imagine. Tons of runs across all three formats, player of the tournament at the T20 World Cup in 2021 – there was no looking back for Warner.
Warner will never be perfect. And that’s his charm. He will continue to seek perfection while being imperfect, and in doing so, continue to inspire. A hundred Tests don’t come easy. Add in his T20I and IPL records and his 50-over performances, and you have a once-in-a-generation player. So what if he is not perfect? We would all be happy to reconcile ourselves with such imperfection. As Warner says, “I have no regrets. Humbled with what life has given me and the family. All I want to do is stay true to my sport and be a good father, and continue to entertain for as long as I can.”
So what can we expect from Warner in the WTC final? Greg Chappell summed it up well. “There is a lot of talk on Dave Warner,” he said. “The point is if the Indian bowlers don’t bowl as well to him as the English did in 2019, he can still punish them. And that’s what he will be hoping to do. If he can get Australia off to a flier, it could well have a telling impact on the match.”
Whether it is Lord’s or the SCG, whenever he decides to call time, it will mark the end of a very special career. One that will leave us all with many life lessons, the most important one being to ‘never give up’.
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