Birmingham: Barely an hour before the start of the Australia-New Zealand match, Cricket Australia (CA) issued a statement saying that their opening batsman David Warner had been asked to sit the match out after being reported for breaching the CA Code of Behaviour.
CA said he had breached Rule 6, “Unbecoming Behaviour”, after he was allegedly involved in a physical altercation with an England player in the early hours of Sunday morning, following the ICC Champions Trophy match between the teams in Birmingham.
“Team management have stood down Warner pending the outcome of the hearing, meaning he will miss Australia’s match against New Zealand in Birmingham,” said the CA statement.
Reporters got busy trying to find out who the England player involved was and whether he was injured.
The England and Wales Cricket Board put out a statement, saying the incident had happened after England versus Australia match on Saturday and the physical assault took place on Sunday at 2am in a Birmingham bar.
While neither board revealed the name of the England player, it soon emerged that Joe Root was the England player concerned.
There are chances Warner will now be sent home after the hearing.
An ECB statement said the altercation between Warner and an England player was initiated by Warner and that they have accepted his apology.
“ECB confirms that David Warner initiated an unprovoked physical attack on a member of the England team in a Birmingham bar following England’s 48-run victory over Australia.
“Warner has admitted behaving inappropriately and has since apologised to the player involved who has accepted the apology. Following a full investigation, the England team management has concluded that Root was in no way responsible for nor retaliated to the attack. ECB has concluded that this is a matter for Cricket Australia and has no further comment to make.”
CA will convene the Code of Behaviour meeting soon. Warner was recently fined $5,750 (Dh21,000) recently by CA for engaging in a Twitter spat with two Australian journalists.
Warner scored two ducks in the warm-up game and scored only nine runs against England.
