CA seek professional help for Warner - report

Cricket Australia is seeking professional advice on what the organisation believes is troubled batsman David Warner‘s drinking problem, a report said on Saturday.

The controversial opener was fined Aus$11,500 ($11,000) and suspended until the start of the Ashes by CA on Thursday for an incident in which he punched England batsman Joe Root in a Birmingham bar during the ongoing Champions Trophy.

He will miss the rest of title-holders Australia’s involvement in the tournament and their two warm-up matches before he is again available for the first Ashes Test against England at Nottingham, which starts on July 10.

CA chief executive James Sutherland on Friday strongly condemned the behaviour of Warner and five other Australian players who were with him at the time of the incident.

The Sydney Daily Telegraph Saturday quoted Sutherland as saying CA were looking to examine Warner’s drinking issues further.

“I will be taking expert advice on that within the team to make sure, with our various professionals, to make some additional judgements on that to provide whatever support is necessary,” Sutherland said.

“Whatever the case is, he is making some pretty ordinary decisions and getting himself into trouble.”

The newspaper’s cricket writer Malcolm Conn said he was contacted by three Australian cricketers during last month’s Indian Premier League where Warner was playing for the Delhi Daredevils who told him that the dashing opening batsman was drinking.

Warner has denied alcohol was involved in his expletive-laden early morning Twitter rant at two Australian cricket journalists, including Conn, last month from India, when he was fined Aus$5,750 by CA.

Conn said he had again been told by an Australian player that Warner had in fact been drinking at the time of the Twitter outburst.

The Telegraph said there were fears that Warner was heading down the same path as former Australian player Andrew Symonds, who was suspended for two one-day matches after being drunk on the morning of a match against Bangladesh in Cardiff.

“Definitely not. I don’t think I’ve got a drinking problem at all,” Warner told a press conference in London on Thursday. “It’s just basically I’ve got to make the right decisions at the right time.”

“I have to apologise for what I did and I can’t put myself in that position ever again.

“And not let the team down and everyone else down and in these circumstances try not to be aggressive like I did.”