David Warner feels his incident with Joe Root was less severe than Ben Stokes’ one
Australia vice-captain David Warner feels that his Birmingham bar brawl with Joe Root was a lot less severe than Ben Stokes’ Bristol bar incident, going by the video footage. The explosive opener was suspended from the first two Tests of 2013 Ashes series after he had punched Joe Root.
Australia and England have never been on good terms both on and off the field of late and the upcoming Ashes series brings back to mind the 2013 bar incident when Australia’s David Warner had punched England’s Joe Root in a Birmingham bar after England’s 48-run win in the Champions Trophy.
Branded as a "despicable thing" by Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland then, Warner was dropped from Australia’s next match against New Zealand. It was followed by his ban from Australia's 2013 Ashes warm-up matches, which effectively suspended him from the first two Tests of that series.
Warner was asked about Ben Stokes’ bar incident that is currently seeing the England all-rounder out of the side. The vice-captain said, “I did do my time. It was a lot less than what we've seen on that footage, that's for sure. It's up to them what they want to do - how they punish him and first of all, it's up to the police. I think everyone in the world is waiting to see what happens there and what the outcome is.”
Warner’s incident had also seen coach Micky Arthur getting indirectly sacked by the board with Darren Lehman replacing him with Warner being forced to issue a public apology in London.
“I had to deal with the situation that I was dealt with. Does Cricket Australia regret that or not? I don't know. I just copped it on the chin and moved forward. One thing they didn't have was video footage, I'd still like to know where that is," he said.
After being humiliated by India in the ODI series, Australia did well to come back in the T20I series that ended as 1-1. Steve Smith and his deputy, Warner would hope to get back to winning ways in the Ashes series that starts next month.
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