David Warner: Will talent prevail over temper?
David Warner
Anger is an attribute you would most probably associate with heroes and positive protagonists in movies. The righteousness of their character provides them the hypothetical license of fury which they enjoy and exploit to their will. They slaughter villains at the slightest provocation, and get away with an incontestable excuse of entertaining the viewers.
Perhaps, the spectators at theaters and movies are completely different from those at cricket stadiums, or may be they don’t expect similar kind of entertainment from sports. Either way, the underlying fact remains that people do not watch cricket with the same generosity as films.
One man who would be complaining, rather cursing the not-so-liberal approach towards cricket is none other than Australia’s angry young man, David Warner. The hot-headed star would be fussing about the stringent restrictions of the Gentleman’s Game that aims to maintain its gentleness.
Even gentlemen can’t do without a few drinks on the weekend. After a long and tiring day at office and a week full of chivalrous deeds and civil courteousness, one can’t really blame a polite man to get drunk and catch up a mini fight at a late-night pub.
Rules are meant to be broken, Warner may argue. And that, he did. Unfortunately though, cricket fell short of admiring his aggression and Warner was forced to realize that life for a protagonist of the Gentleman’s Game is no cakewalk.
1263 runs from 19 Tests at an average of nearly 40 clearly signifies the danger he poses to the opposition as an opening batsman. It’s not extraordinary for a superbly successful cricketer to showcase an array of emotions on the field, but Warner certainly hasn’t yet attained that pinnacle of success.
His sublime talent and immense potential may excuse him a couple of times on the field, but his stats surely lack the audacity to license his off-field antics.
Australia have, in recent past, produced batsmen of the caliber of Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist, all of whom used to be fierce competitors on the field and gentlemen off it. The world used to revere their spirit of never letting the opposition to settle down. However, their arrogance was a unique amalgam of respect and constructive aggression that never amounted to ruthless belligerence of rules and regulations.
In case of Warner, arrogance burgeoning from overconfidence, transcends all boundaries of decorum and decency. Impudence recognizes no limits once conceit infuses bias into the mind.
Engaging in a brawl with English cricketers at a pub or lashing out expletives at journalists, certainly, doesn’t suit an Australian international whose elegance and grace are expected to be iconic for the whole country. No wonder Warner received the boots pretty disgracefully from his own Board.