David Warner calls for Cricket Australia to explain India A ball change

November 6, 2024

David Warner has called on Cricket Australia to fully explain what happened when the ball was changed on the final day of the Australia A-India A game in Mackay.

The Indian players, particularly wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, were angry when a different ball was handed to them by the umpires before play. Audio picked up over the stump microphone heard umpire Shawn Craig saying there were scratches on the previous one and telling Kishan he would be put on report for calling the decision “stupid.”

“You scratch it, we change the ball,” Craig said. “There will be no more discussion, let’s play.”

Hours after the game finished, a CA statement said the ball had “deteriorated” and that no further action would be taken. “Both teams’ captain and manager were informed of the decision prior to the start of play,” the statement added.

Warner, who said he was not across the whole incident but had seen the exchanges in the middle, suggested the issue had been “squashed” ahead of the imminent arrival of India for the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“The ultimate decision is with CA isn’t it?,” Warner said. “I think they have obviously squashed it as fast as they could, given that India is coming out here this summer. But if the umpires deemed something happened, I am sure there will be a follow up. I think the umpires or the match referee should be standing here answering questions.”

“I think the match referee should be coming out and addressing his own staff which are the umpires. And if they’re sticking by the umpire’s decisions, you have to stand up for that. That’s obviously a statement CA have to release. I have not seen anything.”

It’s understood there is no footage available of anything untoward being done to the ball.

Under the laws, a five-run penalty is imposed if the umpires change the ball after they consider it to have been unfairly altered. However, the CA playing conditions include an extra clause which mean the umpires can make a change without implementing penalty runs if it’s unclear how the ball came to be damaged.

Warner’s comments came on the day he was unveiled as Sydney Thunder captain following the overturning of his lifetime leadership ban imposed for his role in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal in 2018.

“The punishment that was handed down was there for a reason and I thoroughly accept that,” he said. “You’re always going to be disappointed that you can’t lead but what was done was done and I moved on from that.

“But I get the opportunity to lead the Thunder and share my wealth of knowledge about the game and hopefully some of the youngsters can come ask me some questions after the game, decisions that I’ve made or some errors that I might have made and have that confidence and hopefully one day they can grow into a captain as well.”

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