Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has accused his country’s cricket board of double standards and making David Warner the “scapegoat” in its messy handling of his captaincy ban following the ball-tampering scandal. Four years after the scandal, Warner is still living with the leadership ban while accomplice Steve Smith happens to lead Australia in the ongoing day-night Test against the West Indies.
Not prepared to let my family be the “washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry”, an angry Warner on Wednesday withdrew his application for revocation of lifetime leadership ban, saying the independent review panel wanted him to go through “public lynching”.
Showing support to his former teammate, Clarke said the Cricket Australia’s review of the scandal has been inconsistent.
“You can tell he’s disappointed and frustrated,” Clarke said on Big Sports Breakfast. “I think the other thing that probably hurts a little bit more is the fact Steve Smith is going to captain this Test match. I can understand Davey’s disappointment. In regards to where Davey is with his age, he’s unfortunately missed out on the captaincy opportunity in my opinion. I don’t think that’s the concern, it’s the fact it’s taken so long to process this or to get to where it’s at.
“I see it as very inconsistent. I find it very hard to believe it’s okay for one but not okay for the other to have a leadership role. If CA decided all the guys involved in what went down in South Africa, none of them were going to play a leadership role, I think that’s a fair call.”
Clarke feels Warner has been made the scapegoat for the incident that happened in 2018.
“But if it’s okay for one, if it’s okay for Smithy, it’s got to be ok for (Cameron) Bancroft and it’s got to be okay for Warner.
“I don’t know if it’s fair to make David Warner the complete scapegoat and say everyone else can go back to normal. We’ll forgive you but we won’t forgive Davey.”
