Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has encouraged South Africa to sledge veteran batsman David Warner during the forthcoming Test series. Given the events of ‘Sandpapergate,’ the 41-year-old believes it will be fair game as long as the Proteas don’t go over the line.
For the first time since the ball-tampering scandal in March 2018, Steve Smith and Warner will meet South Africa in a Test match. Due to their involvement in the incident, the two received year-long bans along with opening batsman Cameron Bancroft.
Warner has not been in the best of form in Test cricket off late, and as a result, his performance will be the subject of much discussion in the upcoming series against South Africa. Also, he has been going through quite a tumultuous time with the decision to ban him from leadership positions not being revoked despite Smith being named as vice-captain and even leading the side in the last Test against the West Indies.
Warner withdrew his appeal against the captaincy ban after being subjected to what he called a ‘witchhunt’. Smith took Warner’s side, calling a lifetime captaincy ban ‘fundamentally wrong’.
“Their approach to any player that was involved in that ‘Sandpapergate,’ they’ve got it mate. It doesn’t need to cross the line, but you can make it very clear to someone like David Warner that the Australian fans are off him.
I want to see Davey Warner, if they have a crack at him on the field while he’s batting, go back to being that bulldog and give it back to them, Davey,”
Clarke said on the Big Sports Podcast ahead of the all-important Test series.
Following the Aussies’ huge win over the Windies in the recently concluded Test series, Smith has come out in support of Warner and has backed him to come good in the series against the Proteas.
Smith empathised with Warner, and said that the latter served the punishment just as he did and deserved to be given due consideration for captaincy considering his service to Australian cricket.
“From my point of view, banning someone for life from leadership is just fundamentally wrong. David served his time like I did. It’s been a difficult one for him, it’s been a difficult week. He’s got our full support. Hopefully he can have a really big series for us against South Africa with the bat.”
he stated.
Also read 👉 Lifetime ban on leadership ‘fundamentally wrong’: Smith comes to Warner’s defence
