India’s media yesterday lashed out at David Warner over his repeated verbal clashes with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s touring team, demanding the aggressive Australian opener be reined in.
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“Brakes on motormouth Warner” and “Talkative Warner crosses the line” read two headlines in Indian newspapers after Warner was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for demanding Rohit Sharma “speak English” during Sunday’s one-dayer in Melbourne.
“Warner has a knack of getting into trouble. Despite warnings in the past he does not seem to learn,” the Times of India wrote, referring to his constant run-ins with the Indians during the preceding Test series.
The Hindustan Times said Indian team managers had decided to ignore Warner.
“The Indian team management, despite all the verbal volleys that flew from the Aussie camp, confirmed that the team had decided to not react and concentrate on getting back to winning ways,” the paper wrote.
The Australian fielders had taken offence when the Indians went for a single off an overthrow which they wrongly believed was in breach of cricket etiquette.
The reporter for the Wisden India website covering the series said Warner’s behaviour was unwarranted.
“Warner is also the perfect example of a man fighting for all the wrong causes, however strong his conviction might be that he is doing the right thing,” the website wrote.
“He does not suffer from white line fever so much as define it. One day, it will come back to bite him very badly where it hurts.
“Australia have made ‘playing hard but fair’ one of the most laughable cliches in the cricket world. By their estimation, everything they do is ‘hard but fair’, but everything the opposition does is unfair.”
Warner admitted he should not have confronted Sharma but said the pair had been engaging in “friendly banter” during the match.