Summary:
- Former teammates David Warner and Mitchell Johnson media spat continues to hog headlines
- Ex-head coach Justin Langer says cricketers must follow unwritten rule and sort differences in private
- Warner is set to play his final series in Australia and retire against Pakistan
Australia will start their summer of cricket with a 3 match test series against Pakistan. The first test is set to take place from Dec 14 to 18 in Perth, Western Australia.
David Warner who is set to play his final test series against Pakistan and then retire has hogged the headlines after former teammate turned commentator Mitchell Johnson attacked him for getting special treatment.
Johnson accused Warner of getting special treatment for getting the opportunity to play the summer of cricket in Australia and retire on home soil. Johnson said based on Warner’s form for the last three years, he should not be in the test team, let alone be given the opportunity to decide to retire when he wants.
Johnson and Warner played together and were part of a successful team but were never the best of friends. Their issues go back in time with even Warner’s wife Candace Warner getting involved in the past. Their media spat continues to hog headlines in Australia and this hasn’t gone down well with former head coach Justin Langer.
In his newspaper column, Langer wrote
In simple terms, I hate it when men from the rare club of playing cricket for the Australia air any of their grievances publicly. I believe in a simple ethos of, ‘Praise in public, criticise in private’. In other words, if you want to say something publicly, be positive and use the opportunity to praise the person you are talking about. In contrast, if you want to criticise someone, look them in the eye and tell them how you are feeling
Johnson was dropped from a commentary stint following his attack on Warner. We don’t know how this media spat has impacted Warner ahead of the test series against Pakistan but Langer wants it to end quickly.
Langer went on to write
There was always an unwritten rule that, although all of us may not be best of friends, the mutual respect of playing for Australia was enough to stop of us from criticising each other publicly.
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