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John Buchanan, the former Australia coach, who secured two ODI World Cup wins during his illustrious tenure, spoke about how he doesn’t consider David Warner as one of the greats of cricket. When the 70-year-old was asked whether David Warner was “great” at cricket on SEN’s breakfast show, his immediate response read, “I don’t think so.”
From 1999 to 2007, John Buchanan transformed Australia's men’s cricket team into one of the most dominating sporting sides in the entire world. Apart from the two ODI World Cup titles, the Queenslander led them to their first Champions Trophy in 2006, and he also guided them to 16 consecutive wins in Tests on two occasions, a world record in the sport.
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Before divulging why he didn’t consider David Warner as the “great” of cricket, John Buchanan was all praises in regards to his impressive career with Australia. He was quoted as saying, “I think he (David Warner) has certainly performed exceptionally well throughout this career, he sits on 8000+ runs, he's played over 100 Test matches, over 160 ODIs, and nearly 100 T20s. His averages are reasonable compared to all those in the various formats, his strike rate is obviously higher because of the way he plays the game.”
The former Australian coach went on to reserve the tag of greatness for players like Don Bradman, Glenn McGrath, and Shane Warne, among others. According to him, they did something truly incredible for the sport, something which is hard to replicate for others.
John Buchanan remarked, “On a performance basis, he's right up there. But greats of the game, in my opinion, are people that really do and have done something exceptional that others just can't match, so, therefore, you automatically go to the (Don) Bradmans, (Glenn) McGraths, (Shane) Warnes, they're the greats in my opinion.”
