NEWS
Follow UsFormer Australia pacer Mitchell Johnson has severely criticised David Warner's selection for the upcoming Test series against Pakistan, starting December 14. Johnson believes that Warner, who has struggled in the format for a couple of years now, and his involvement in one of Australia's biggest cricketing scandals - the sandpapergate - does not warrant him a hero's send-off.
"It's been five years and David Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal," Johnson wrote. "Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country," Johson wrote in his column in The West Australian.
"As we prepare for David Warner's farewell series, can somebody please tell me why?
"Why a struggling Test opener gets to nominate his own retirement date. And why a player at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricket history warrant a hero's send-off?
"Warner certainly isn't Australia's Test captain and never deserved to be for that matter. In fact, he ends his career under a lifetime leadership ban.
"Yes, he has a decent overall record and some say is one of our greatest opening bats. But his past three years in Test cricket have been ordinary, with a batting average closer to what a tailender would be happy with.
Johnson, who was Warner's teammate between 2009 and 2013, also took aim at George Bailey, questioning his role as chief selector.
"When then-captain Tim Paine's career was ending over the sexting controversy, chairman of selectors George Bailey said he didn't want to be part of deciding Paine's fate because the pair were close friends," Johnson wrote.
"Bailey said he would leave it to then coach Justin Langer and fellow selector Tony Dodemaide to work it out.
"The handling of Warner in recent years, who played with Bailey in all three forms, raises the question of whether Bailey was simply too quickly out of playing and into the job and too close to some of the players.
"I also wonder what the role of the head selector is these days. It seems to have moved to be a part of the inner sanctum rather than standing aside from it. There's now throw downs for the players, golfing together and celebrating wins to all hours."
"It's the ball-tampering disgrace in South Africa that many will never forget. Although Warner wasn't alone in Sandpapergate, he was at the time a senior member of the team and someone who liked to use his perceived power as a 'leader'.
"Does this really warrant a swansong, a last hurrah against Pakistan that was forecast a year in advance as if he was bigger than the game and the Australian cricket team?
"Granted he made his double century against South Africa at the MCG last summer, but they were the only runs he had scored in years. Leading into this year's Ashes series, that was the only time he had reached 50 in his previous 17 Test innings."
Bailey's response to Johnson was a short one. "I've been sent little snippets of it. I hope he's okay," he said.
"To be honest, I don't think now is probably the appropriate time to go into it," Bailey, who was part of the 2015 World Cup-winning squad with Johnson and Warner, said.
"My only question would be, or observation will be if someone can show me how being distant and unaware of what players are going through and what the plans are with the team and with the coaching staff, how that's more beneficial, I'd be all ears."
Warner averages just 26.74 from his last 36 Test innings, but Bailey still believes the southpaw is the ideal player to open alongside Usman Khawaja. "Ultimately, we still think he's in our best 11 players to win the first Test," Bailey said.
"I think Test cricket, in terms of the way that the World Test Championship points is set up, each Test is critical.
"There's points on the line for each and every game. So our focus is very much on picking the 11 that we think can do the job, and obviously, there's roles within that for each individual and how that actually structures up the team as a whole and we think David is the right person for that for this Test."
