English crowds are “stupid” to jeer David Warner at the Cricket World Cup as it will only fire him up, the Australian batsman’s manager James Erskine has said.
Warner, who has returned to the side following a 12-month ban for ball-tampering, was booed by the crowd during Australia’s opening match against Pakistan in Bristol but struck an unbeaten 89 and was named man-of-the-match.
“I am English. Where the Poms are stupid is that it is actually going to encourage him. It will actually help him. The fact of the matter is, you concentrate, he won’t want to fail, he got 89,” Erskine said in comments published by Fairfax Media.
“They will learn very smartly that they are dealing with someone who has got the powers of concentration and his willpower, it’s no different from a Steve Waugh or a Nick Faldo. That’s exactly what will happen here.”
“As I have said before, these guys (Warner and Smith) have taken a hit for a lot of other people and they paid their price.
“They now basically have got to go out and play well and it looks as if they are going to play well.”
Australia next face West Indies in Nottingham on Thursday.
