Mitchell Johnson Talks About Contentious Column: Former Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson has revealed the reason behind his scathing criticism of his former teammate and current Aussie opener David Warner in a column out it all stemmed from a “quite personal” and “pretty bad” text sent by Warner earlier this year.
Mitchell Johnson Talks About Contentious Column
In last weekend’s edition of the West Australian, Johnson went into David Warner and his upcoming retirement. For those unaware, Warner is set to retire from all international cricket after playing his final test match on January 3, 2024, against Pakistan in his home ground of Sydney.
In his article, Johnson opined that the fierce opening batsman should not receive the honor of a farewell match. He noted how Warner only has an average of 26-74 in his last 36 Tests and that he should no longer be part of the team, with a Test farewell being a long shot.
Check Out: Mitchell Johnson Trashes David Warner’s Send-off
In his column, Johnson even discussed the 2018 ball-tampering incident, when during a Test match against, Cameron Bancroft was caught tampering with that ball with sandpaper. Following the incident, Bancroft, team captain Steve Smith, and vice-captain David Warner were suspended for a year.
As per the Mitchell Johnson Talks About Contentious Column, Mitchell Johnson made his first public statement since the article on his podcast The Mitchell Johnson Cricket Show. There, he opened up about his reasons for writing that column.
According to the 42-year-old, David Warner had sent him a very personal and attacking text when Johnson wrote an article about the Delhi Capitals batter’s form back in April.
Check Out: Mitchell Johnson Talks About Contentious Column
“I got a message from Dave, which was quite personal. I tried to ring to try and talk to him about it, which I’ve always been open to. I know I’ve been open to the guys when I finished playing. I said if I’m in the media and writing things or saying things that you don’t like, just come and speak to me.”
“It was never a personal thing then until this point. This is probably what drove me to write the article as well, part of it. It was definitely a factor. Some of the stuff that was said in that, I won’t say it. I think that’s up to Dave to say it if he wants to talk about it. There was some stuff in there that was extremely disappointing, what he said, and pretty bad to be honest.”
said Johnson during the podcast.
While David Warner himself has not discussed the column in public, his manager James Erskine told SEN Radio the star-batter was “a bit sad” in regards to the comments made by his former teammate.
Check Out:
Mitchell Johnson Talks About Contentious Column
Mitchell Johnson’s Column Attacking David Warner
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