Disgraced Australia opening batsman David Warner returned to action on home soil on Saturday and said he was desperate to force his way back into the national side when his ball-tampering suspension ended next year. Warner was handed a 12-month ban from first class cricket for his role in a ball-tampering scandal during Australia’s test series in South Africa in March.
“I’m here to play cricket and I love doing that,” he told after he scored 36 runs from 32 balls for the City Cyclones in the Strike League.
“I wouldn’t be here today and continue to keep working my backside off to keep scoring runs for each team that I play for if I didn’t love it. I wouldn’t be here, I’d probably retire.”
“I’ll be putting my hand up as much as I can,” added the 31-year-old, who said during the height of the furore that he did not know if he had an international future.
“This (competition in Darwin) is just a little stepping stone to continue my progress to enable myself to keep scoring as many runs as I can for every single team I play for in the next eight months.”
