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Cricket Australia’s Conduct Commission has removed the lifetime leadership ban on David Warner. The ban was imposed after a ball-tampering scandal in 2018. The ban on the 37-year-old was lifted after a unanimous decision by an independent three-member Review Panel a few days after the cricketer expressed his wish to make a retirement u-turn ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024. Notably, after the uplifting of the ban, the cricketer has been cleared to lead Sydney Thunders in the forthcoming Big Bash League (BBL).
Warner was a key figure in the 2018 “Sandpaper-gate” incident conspiring with the then-skipper Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to alter the ball’s surface. Warner received a year’s suspension with a lifetime ban from holding a leadership role in Australian cricket. In his appeal to lift the ban, Warner presented references from current Australian captain Pat Cummins, coach Andrew McDonald and former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson.
Warner’s conduct and behaviour has been excellent: Cricket Australia’s Conduct Commission
The review panel of the Cricket Australia’s Conduct Commission released an official statement and said, “The respectful and contrite tone of his (Warner’s) responses, as well as the content impressed the Review Panel and led it to the unanimous view that he was sincere and genuine in acknowledging responsibility for the conduct and in his statement that he had extreme remorse for his conduct.”
“Mr Warner’s conduct and behaviour since the imposition of the sanction has been excellent and he appears to have made a substantial change, one example of which is that he no longer sledges or tries to provoke the opposing team,” it further read. “The Review Panel is more than satisfied that Mr Warner will not engage in any conduct similar to that which occurred in 2018 which resulted in the sanction and that the sanction has thus had the relevant quality of specific deterrence.”
