The former Aussie cricketer Mitchell Johnson is quite unhappy with the manner in which the Australian cricket board is planning to give a farewell to the Australian cricketer David Warner and he questioned in his column as to why a struggling test cricketer who was involved in the sandpapergate scandal was given a hero send-off.
Earlier David Warner expressed his desire to take retirement from the longest format of the game after playing a test match in Sydney against Pakistan in January and the Cricket Australia has decided to fulfill Warner’s desire by including him in the squad which will play in Sydney test match.
Recently Mitchell Johnson opened up as to why he criticized David Warner and while speaking on his podcast, he revealed that he got a very bad and disappointing test message from David Warner earlier this year when he (Johnson) wrote a column in which he questioned the public defense of David Warner in regard to his place in the test team done by his wife, Candice Warner.
Mitchell Johnson stated that he is always open to talk if someone has felt bad about what he has written or said in media and he tried to ring Warner after he sent a personal message. He added that it was never personal until this point and probably that message was also a factor which made him write the recent article.
Talking about the message he got from David Warner, Mitchell said that there are some things in that message about which he won’t talk as it was extremely bad and disappointing and now it is upto David Warner to talk about it.
Mitchell wrote in his recent article that it has been nearly 5 years to the ball-tampering scandal and till now David Warner hasn’t owned it and his form in test matches certainly does not deserve a hero’s send-off. Mitchell Johnson went to the extent of writing that giving such farewell to Warner is like disrespecting the country because he was in the center of one of the biggest scandals of Australian cricket.
Mitchell also accepted that the article was written with the help of a ghostwriter but it was signed by him after proofreading it and he is not looking for attention as it is his opinion and this is how he sees it.
What is your take on this matter? Does David Warner deserve a hero’s farewell? Share your views in this regard.