CAPE TOWN – Although David Warner has calmed down over the past few years, the Australian opener has been involved in a number of incidents over the years.
The ugly spat featuring Warner and Proteas wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock in a heated confrontation on the fourth day of the first Test between South Africa and Australia at Kingsmead on Sunday is the latest in a long line of outbursts from a player that was once called “the most juvenile cricketer I have seen on a cricket field” by the late New Zealand captain Martin Crowe.
Here we look at five previous incidents involving Warner…
1 Twitter outbursts
With over 1.64 million followers, David Warner is a populist figure on social media. However, sometimes just like on the field, his temper gets the better of him off it too.
Tasmania fast bowler Brett Geeves was at the receiving end of one Warner’s Twitter tirades in 2011, while he also attacked senior Australian journalists like Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn in 2013.
On both occasions Cricket Australia were forced with intervene, with Warner receiving an AU$5 750 fine from CA for the Conn incident.
2 Suspended for going “Walkabout”
Just a month after his Twitter war, Warner hit the lowest point of his career. The Walkabout bar in Birmingham will always be synonymous with Warner, for it was here where he allegedly tried to punch Joe Root after an Australia-England game at the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.
CA banned Warner for the remaining Champions Trophy and the opening Ashes Test that followed.
He publicly apologised to the now-England captain, who accepted it.
3 On-field altercation with Thami Tsolekile
“Once bitten, twice shy” does not seem to be a mantra Warner has been made aware of.
Having been sent to South Africa A with the Australia A team immediately after the Root incident, he was involved in an on-field spat with former Proteas Test wicket-keeper Thami Tsolekile, who is equally a firebrand and now a convicted match-fixer.
The on-field action became so heated that SA A batsman Vaughn van Jaarsveld was forced to separate the two.
Cricket Australia took no action after Warner tweeted: “Great to be back playing cricket, had lots of fun this week and a bit of friendly banter from the wicket-keeper. Was very funny!”
4 Calls Jonathan Trott “weak”
After England suffered a bombardment of bouncers from Aussie speedster Mitchell Johnson in the 2013-14 Ashes, Warner climbed into Jonathan Trott, terming the South African-born batsman “pretty poor and pretty weak”, and that the visitors looked like “they’ve got scared eyes”.
The England team management termed it “disrespectful”, and even Australia’s former captain Steve Waugh believed Warner had “crossed the line”.
To make matters worse, Trott later withdrew from that Ashes tour, citing “stress and anxiety”.
5 Warner and India!
Despite the Indian Premier League thawing the tension between the two countries, when Australia and India meet, it is almost like a ticking time bomb.
Often Warner is involved when it does indeed explode, like when he was fined 15% of his match fee for an altercation when he indicated to the third umpire that Indian paceman Varun Aaron had overstepped when he clean-bowled Warner in Adelaide.
Equally, he was fined when he clashed with Rohit Sharma, telling the opening batsman to “speak English” during a heated exchange between the two.
@ZaahierAdams