SYDNEY (Reuters) -Cricket Australia (CA) look set to revoke David Warner’s lifetime ban from leadership positions after announcing that the body’s integrity code would be reviewed at Friday’s board meeting as a “first step” to his rehabilitation.
The now 35-year-old batsman was banned from the elite game for a year and from leadership positions for life by CA after he was adjudged to have played the leading role in the 2018 Newlands ball-tampering scandal.
There have been calls this year from current and former players for the leadership ban to be dropped to allow Warner to be considered for the vacancy as Australia’s one-day international captain.
“The view within Cricket Australia is that David is doing particularly well on the field and making a great contribution,” CA chair Lachlan Henderson told a news conference after Thursday’s annual general meeting.
“The first step in terms of David’s leadership ban is to review the code and see if those sanctions are able to be reviewed. And the appropriate revisions to that code that would need to be made.”
Any player who accepts a sanction under the current integrity code, as Warner did, forgoes the right to a later review of the punishment.
Henderson and chief executive Nick Hockley said they felt it was important the code recognised that sanctioned players could change.
“We are looking at sanctions to be reviewed for good behaviour and growth after a period of time,” Hockley told reporters.
“Pending tomorrow’s discussion, there would then need to be a revision of the code and that would need to be approved by the board.”
Henderson added that the review would be undertaken “as quickly as practicable”.
“It’s not in anyone’s interest for us to delay,” he said. “It would be in time for any future leadership conversations in relation to David.”
Warner, a former test vice-captain, has said he would regard the offer of a leadership role for his country as a “privilege”.
At the AGM, CA announced a A$5.1 million ($3.20 million) net loss for the 2021-22 financial year, blaming a 3.5% drop in revenue largely on a slump in the international sports media rights market.
($1 = 1.5931 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
