A decade since Walkabout-gate, David Warner is still punching
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Of all the Walkabout bars, in all the towns, in all of England, Joe Root had to walk into David Warner’s.
It’s almost a decade to the day since the infamous incident when Australia’s feisty opener punched the England batsman in the Australian-themed bar on Birmingham’s nightclub strip, although it feels much longer.
Warner has jammed so many matches, triumphs, losses, runs, and indiscretions – big and small – into his career it’s hard to know what to make of it all on the eve of his final Ashes series, which starts at Edgbaston four kilometres away from the Walkabout on Friday evening AEST.
If the cricketing gods could conjure a dream start to the series, Australian captain Pat Cummins would win the toss and bat on a dry, flat pitch with a run-starved Warner facing veteran seamer Stuart Broad, Warner’s career-long nemesis.
Time-poor fans can have their McHappy Meal versions of the game, but only Test cricket can provide this type of engrossing contest: two ageing warriors with a proclivity for theatrics nearing the end of their careers, lustily swinging at swinging deliveries, winking and grinning at each other like pantomime villains.
Back to that night a decade ago when Warner thumped Root, who had wandered into the VIP section where Australian players were drinking following their defeat to England in the Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston. It was a defining moment in his career.
David Warner after he was sent packing by Mohammed Siraj in the World Test Championship final.Credit: AP
The Australians had been drinking at the bar throughout the week, and none more often than Warner. “He was the only one who spoke to me properly,” a barman told London’s Telegraph at the time. “He was a right laugh and really nice to me and had a proper chat. I was serving him Jägerbombs and vodka Red Bulls. He had quite a few. He was drinking them on Saturday night, too.”
Warner took umbrage when he spotted Root wearing a green-and-yellow wig on his chin, pretending it was a beard. He figured Root was mocking Hashim Amla, the South African batsman who sports a beard as a proud display of his Muslim faith.
“I just think, in today’s society, you shouldn’t be fooling around with that kind of stuff,” Warner explained in an interview with this masthead in 2015. “And he probably didn’t mean anything by it at all, but I probably let my aggression and alcohol take over.”
Root at the time scoffed at the suggestion he was mocking Amla.
The Walkabout incident forced Warner to clean up his act and temporarily give up the booze, and he promptly mass-produced runs at the top of the order with signature flair and arrogance. Fours off the first ball of the Test here, three centuries in a row there, runs every-bloody-where as he took matches away from the opposition in one session.
Much like the Jägerbomb, Warner’s batting takes us to a different place in a short period of time, leaving all concerned to wonder what just happened.
England, though, remains a source of parched frustration. He’s never scored a Test century there and this is his last chance to do so.
Warner did a very Warner thing when he declared earlier this month that he intended to finish his career with the Sydney Test next summer.
How arrogant, some figured, that he would set his own end date, even if countless others have done something similar.
It shows how misunderstood Warner can be. He didn’t demand an SCG finish but merely said that’s what he hoped to do.
Those in his inner sanctum report his real motive was to put pressure on himself, especially so given his lack of runs since his double-century against South Africa on Boxing Day.
If he doesn’t score runs in the first two Ashes Tests, and the series doesn’t turn into the Australian procession some have predicted, the selectors might set the end date for him.
Until then, Warner will keep punching. He knows no other way.
Do we like our Test team once again?
Warner and his teammates celebrated their World Test Championship victory over India at The Oval in the old-fashioned way.
After the match finished at 1pm, the players sat around the dressing room in whites and baggy greens, raising a glass to themselves before kicking on to a small pub in Chelsea for a few quiet pints.
So, are we now ready to embrace this Australian team under the stewardship of Cummins, better known to some as “Captain Woke”?
Since taking over the captaincy two years ago, he’s been roundly flogged for daring to have a view on climate change and unfairly blamed for the demise of coach Justin Langer.
Australia celebrate their World Test Championship win.Credit: Getty
Andrew McDonald might be the coach, but the current team has been unquestionably moulded by Cummins, who has moved away from Langer’s autocratic style and empowered his players to prepare for matches how they see fit – within reason, of course.
In 16 Tests, he’s lost only three, won nine, drawn four and established his country as the best in the world.
Nevertheless, Australian captains are judged by what they do in an Ashes series, particularly in England, where Australia hasn’t won since 2001.
Shhh … The Blues are playing next week
Apparently, there’s a big rugby league match next Wednesday in Brisbane, although we don’t want to say too much lest we upset the Blues.
We know who is firmly in NSW’s corner: the NRL, which is desperate for a series decider at Accor Stadium on July 12.
Tickets for game three are tracking strongly with 50,000 sold so far, but you can’t imagine Blues fans falling over themselves to watch a dead rubber.
The last time Queensland won the first two matches, in 2016, a crowd of 61,267 turned up to watch NSW triumph 18-14.
It’s a broad church when it comes to Flanagan appointment
St George Illawarra officials and others are deeply cranky with leading sports lawyer Darren Kane because of a column he wrote for this masthead last Saturday, slamming the club for entertaining the thought of appointing Shane Flanagan as coach.
Shane Flanagan has signed a three-year deal to coach the Dragons.Credit: Getty Images
May I ask … why? If anyone is an authority on the matter, it’s Kane, who has written a Saturday column in these pages for a decade.
As he declared in the column, he represented Cronulla during the 2013 ASADA investigation so if anyone is familiar with the subject it’s him.
Furthermore, he has light-years of experience working for a range of sports – too many to mention here – in governance, integrity and anti-doping issues. He’s also on legal panels for FINA and the Court of Arbitration of Sport.
You don’t have to agree with Kane. Personally, I think it’s time for Flanagan to become a head coach again and the Dragons’ board was running out of options, anyway.
But don’t dismiss his opinion as the rantings of someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about when, clearly, he does.
THE QUOTE
“You feel me? You feel me? You feel me? I ain’t seen no shit like that.” — Rapper Lil Wayne to Jalen Rose after Nikola Jokic’s game-four performance for the Denver Nuggets in the NBA finals. Oh, we feelz ya, Weezy. Jokic then led the Nuggets to victory in game five, securing the team’s first championship.
THUMBS UP
Novak Djokovic’s record is quickly becoming incomparable to any other player in the history of the world and maybe other universes after he claimed his 23rd grand slam title, this time a straight-sets win over Casper Ruud in the French Open men’s final. A calendar slam beckons for The Joker.
THUMBS DOWN
We’ve all said silly things while holding a microphone — some have made a reasonable living out of it — but former Wallaby Sam Scott-Young’s homophobic remarks along with other colourful language at the QRU Long Lunch last Friday were out of line. He eventually apologised but how anyone could still be using the term “f—–t” on stage is quite staggering.
It’s a big weekend for … chlorine addicts as the world championship swim trials in Melbourne reaches its conclusion. On Friday, Kyle “No Dramas” Chalmers lines up in the men’s 100m freestyle. On Saturday, in the headline race of the meet, Emma McKeon, Mollie O’Callaghan, and Shayna Jack are vying for two spots in the women’s 100m.
It’s an even bigger weekend for … the world’s best golfers as they tee off in their first major tournament since their respective paymasters, the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, brokered peace. This will be the first US Open played in Los Angeles in 75 years. How good would it be to see Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy paired together on the final day?
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