VVS Laxman: A soldier like David Warner was definitely misunderstood

Very few people could imagine and make sense of all the events that unfurled back in March when Australian batsman, Cameron Bancroft, was caught on camera tampering the ball during the Test match against the Proteas at Cape Town. Things took an ugly turn when the involvement of skipper Steve Smith and vice-captain, David Warner, came to light and the 12-month ban on the duo only made matters worse.

But, SRH mentor and a good friend of Warner, VVS Laxman, has been of the opinion that the explosive opener only acted as a metaphorical soldier for the Australian national team and was totally misunderstood and adjudged a criminal by the media all over the world without concrete reasoning. Laxman offered the example of another of his team-mate, Andrew Symonds, who he likened to Warner as he spoke about the whole ‘Sandpapergate’ saga on the show - BreakfastWithChampions.

“He is definitely misunderstood. There is no doubt about ball tampering being an offence and he probably should not have done it. But what did he have to gain from it personally? He is not even bowling.

“One thing that I will never forget is what happened with Andrew Symonds. He was with me in Deccan and is a very close and dear friend of mine. Lovely guy and another player who is misunderstood. We were playing for Deccan Chargers and Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) was our captain and Darren Lehmann was our coach. (In a match) Yusuf Pathan was the batsman and had been in good form and we knew that we needed his wicket early. Gilly and Lehmann came up with a plan where Symonds had to stand at silly point - not to take a catch but just to sledge Yusuf and make him angry. 

“So I asked Symonds, ‘Why would you do this?’ he told me, ‘I am a soldier. I am not a leader’. So, like a soldier, his job was only to follow orders and not question them. So I somehow feel that Warner is also a soldier. He does everything that he can for the team. I have seen it in Hyderabad, the way he would interact with the uncapped Indian players,” Laxman revealed.

Laxman also spoke about how his two kids, who as all SRH fans, were utterly devastated after they found out about Warner’s involvement in the ball-tampering incident and revealed they even cried the next day. But the former Indian cricketer reiterated that on his day, the explosive left-handed batsman could make or break a game for the Aussies and stated Warner as the X-factor of the Australian cricket team.

“I feel that even when he plays for Australia, there is an X-factor. When there was a pay dispute with Cricket Australia, the one guy who stood for all the players was Warner. He is someone who has always been the face of the players. He has never been selfish,” Laxman added.