MELBOURNE: Opening batsman says he wants to work his way back into the Australian team before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England and Wales, reported ICC.
David Warner has returned to cricket in Australia for the first time since his year-long ban following the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in March. After scoring 36 runs from 32 balls for the City Cyclones in the NT Strike League the opening batsman made it clear that he has set his sights on a return to the national team before the ICC Cricket World Cup in England next year.
“I know the break’s doing me well. You don’t lose form overnight. I’ll wake up every day, face Mitchell Starc, [Pat] Cummins, [Josh] Hazlewood, the best bowlers I feel in the world. If I can face them consistently in training, when the ban’s up, that gets you back in. You know there’s plenty of warm-up games, I will be in the IPL as well leading into that. There’s plenty of cricket, plenty of world-class players playing there to get my preparation on song.”
Warner has struggled in what little cricket he has had since he was banned from Australian top-level domestic cricket, managing just 109 runs in nine innings playing for the Winnipeg Hawks at the Global T20 Canada, but he is pleased to be back doing what he loves.
“This is just a little stepping stone to keep continuing my progress to putting my hand up and keep enabling myself to keep scoring as many runs as I can for every single team I play for in the next eight months.”
Warner is looking at the positives of his ban, saying he has welcomed a rare break from cricket.
“The longest I’ve had is six weeks off in the last, I guess, seven years,” Warner said. “The last 12 weeks before I went to Canada was great, just to reflect on myself as a human being, just be a dad and a husband. It’s been pleasurable and I’ve really enjoyed that.
“We live in a bubble, and we don’t realise it until it’s taken away from you. There’s a lot more to life than just cricket. Things happen for a reason; this is probably my break to keep me going to prolong my career.”
Warner says he is enjoying a stint playing grade cricket before he heads to the Caribbean Premier League to play for the St Lucia Stars who get their tournament underway on 8 August in the opening fixture against Trinbago Knight Riders. He says he welcomes the chance to give something back to grassroots cricket.
“At the moment in grade cricket, talking to a few people, they say that competition’s going to be weaker. So it’s upon us to try and go back and strengthen that as much as we can and try and progress people to come up here and play as much as they can with the local lads.
“Just want to keep hoping and giving back to the guys up here and the community. They helped us a lot before we went for Bangladesh series. That helped Cricket Australia. When I had the opportunity to come up here and play and help the guys as much as I can.”
