Time to move on from Warner leadership saga; Hussey

Former Australian batter Mike Hussey has expressed sympathy for David Warner, who announced yesterday he was withdrawing from the process to have his lifetime leadership ban from the ball-tampering saga overturned.

Warner claimed the independent panel in charge of the case wanted to hold a public hearing into the events of Cape Town, with the 36 year old saying he did not want his family to have to endure a “public lynching”.

“It’s obviously taken an enormous toll on him and his family, and he probably just wants to move past it,” Hussey told Sports Breakfast.

“I don’t know if there’s going to be any more to play out here, but it’s a bit of a shame … they did the wrong thing, no question about that, but they’re not the only guys who’ve done that in the history of the game.

“I feel like the punishments given to our guys were really strong, but I feel like they’ve done their time now, and it’s time to move on from there.”

A permanent leadership ban was not imposed on Steve Smith, who will lead Australia for the second time since his suspension after Pat Cummins was ruled out of the Adelaide Test with a quad strain, with Hussey saying he had no issues with Smith taking the top job again.

“I can understand why they went for Pat Cummins to be the captain over Steve Smith initially, because it would have divided the nation a little bit, but I think Steve Smith will be a better leader because of what he went through,” he said.

“He would’ve learned a lot about himself as a person, as a captain, as a leader for that horrible experience he had to endure, so I think he’ll have a much better perspective on leadership now than what he did previously.

Despite Australia winning comfortably in Perth, ‘Mr Cricket’ was impressed with the performance of the West Indies, and is hoping they can put in a strong effort under lights in the day-night Test starting today.

“They showed a lot of fight, I must admit coming into it, I was a bit concerned about their batting, but I was really buoyed by the performances of the captain [Kraigg] Brathwaite and even [Tagenarine] Chanderpaul coming in there and playing quite well as well, they certainly showed a fair bit and made the Australians work really hard for those 20 wickets,” he said.

“Coming into the first Test, I thought their bowling would be okay, but they were probably a little bit down on where we hoped they’d be, didn’t really challenge the Australian batsmen enough.

“Whether they can maintain that level, that’s my concern. I know Australia will keep a consistent high level of performance, there’s a lot of young guys in this West Indian team, can they remain at that level again for another whole Test match? I’m not sure, I hope they can, because I just want to see a really good contest.

The visitors look set to roll out a new look attack with the pink ball, with seamers Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales in doubt and all-rounder Kyle Mayers unable to bowl due to injuries.

The day-night Adelaide Test kicks off at 12pm AWST time today, with Australia having secured the Frank Worrell Trophy on the back of their win in Perth.

IMAGE: Wide World of Sports.