Australia Opening batsman David Warner has been dropped by the Australian selectors amid allegations of an unprovoked attack on England and Yorkshire batsman, Joe Root.
The attack is meant to have taken place inside a Birmingham nightclub on Saturday night, following England’s comfortable victory over Australia in their opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy.
According to reports in this morning’s papers, a punch was thrown by Warner towards Root, only to have missed or just glanced him even. Reports also state that things got hasty over a green and gold wig worn by Root, was somehow seen as an offensive gesture by Warner.
Warner seemed to suggest that Root was impersonating South Africa batsman Hashim Amla by moving the wig off his head, downwards to the chin area to act like a beard. These reports have been indefinitely denied by the England hierarchy.
David Warner had been drinking Jäger-bomb cocktails and vodka with Red Bull according to the barman on duty that night. Drowning his sorrows might have been high on his agenda following the comprehensive defeat by England earlier that afternoon.
Following the incident, David Warner has indefinitely been dropped for today’s do-or-die match against New Zealand at Edgbaston. To add to his humiliation, Warner has been reported to the governing body for “unbecoming behaviour” after breaching their code of conduct.
This adds to Australia’s woes in the run-up to the Ashes, given Michael Clarke is already an injury doubt. Warner may not be the most experienced of batsman, but compared to the rest of the line-up, he is very much an integral part of the Aussie batting department.
The ECB have released a statement stating that David Warner had apologised for his unlawful actions on Saturday night.
“Following a full investigation, the England team management has concluded that the England player was in no way responsible for, nor retaliated to the attack. Warner has admitted behaving inappropriately and has since apologised to the player involved, who has accepted the apology.”
The statement added “The ECB has concluded that this is a matter for Cricket Australia and we have no further comment to make.”
The Australia hierarchy have dropped Warner until further notice, pointing towards a potentially lengthy ban or a huge hit to his wallet.
It must be remembered this isn’t the first time David Warner has been in trouble with the Cricket governing body. Only last month, he was fined £3,700 for comments made to journalists over his Twitter account.
One thing that’s for certain, this story will definitely add more bite to an Ashes series that was already going to be a rather feisty one.