Glenn Maxwell Backs David Warner After Mitchell Johnson’s Controversial Lash Out
New Delhi: Glenn Maxwell has also come out in support of his teammate David Warner following the controversial lash-out from the former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson. Warner is set to play his farewell Test match in the upcoming red-ball series against Pakistan which is set to start from December 14. However, Johnson wasn’t impressed with the fact that Warner was allowed to nominate his farewell match despite being involved in the sandpaper scandal.
“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 warrants a hero’s send-off?” wrote Johnson in his column for ‘The West Australian’
“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”. It’s been five years and David Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal. What will fans bring for Warner? Bunnings would sell out of sandpaper.”
“Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country. 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.”
“It’s the ball-tampering disgrace in South Africa that many will never forget. 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,” Johnson added in the column.
Glenn Maxwell backed his teammate and even said that he wants to see Warner score lots of runs in this red-ball series. “I’m not going to throw my name into some headlines about this. But Davey’s been an absolute champion of Australian cricket for a long period of time and the selectors were pretty clear on what they thought of it (selecting him). I’m looking forward to seeing Davey in that first Test and him making a lot of runs this summer,” said Maxwell while speaking to Australian Radio Station SEN.