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Changes to Cricket Australia's Code of Conduct have come under scrutiny after it failed its first test, with the organisation losing control of the David Warner appeal.
- The changes to Cricket Australia's code of conduct have come under fire following the Dave Warner saga
- Warner withdrew his application to have his lifetime captiancy ban reviewed
- It has raised questions as to how Cricket Australia lost control of the situation
Warner on Wednesday night dropped his application to have his captaincy ban lifted, furious the independent review panel wanted to revisit the ball-tampering affair and make it public.
In the latest twist to Warner's nine-month bid to erase the last blemish of the 2018 saga, the opening bat was expecting to front a panel and plead his subsequent growth and contrition.
Warner and Cricket Australia both believed his appeal was in line with Code of Conduct changes made by the governing body last month to allow for a review of the leadership sanctions.
But Warner claims the review panel, featuring three independent Code of Conduct commissioners, had other ideas — including allowing accredited media to attend the hearing, as well as going back over the events of March 2018.
Warner, with the support of CA, protested that process on the second day of last week's Perth Test in a desperate bid to keep any appeal in-house.
But the independent panel was able to set their own parameters and method around the process.
Questions will now be asked of how CA officials lost control of the situation, just weeks after the board approved changes to the code.
"We are disappointed with this outcome as our intention was to give David the opportunity to demonstrate why his lifetime leadership ban should be varied at an independent hearing and we amended our Code of Conduct accordingly," a CA spokesman said.
"We supported David's wish for these discussions to be heard behind closed doors and respect his decision to withdraw his application."
Warner could theoretically re-launch an application to have his ban lifted, given his current motion was not heard nor defeated.
But that would likely require a significant change in the process currently proposed by the panel.
In a lengthy statement on the eve of the Adelaide Test, and on the same day Steve Smith returned to the captaincy for the second time, Warner lashed out in an Instagram post supported by multiple teammates.
He claimed the panel had not given consideration to the welfare of his family or teammates, the opener suggesting the hearing would be akin to a public lynching.
He also suggested counsel assisting the panel, who Warner said had since been removed, had made "offensive and unhelpful comments" about him.
"Counsel assisting the review panel appeared to be determined to revisit the events of March 2018 and the review panel appears determined to expose me and my family to further humiliation and harm by conducting a media circus," Warner said.
"In effect, counsel assisting, and, it appears, to some extent the Review Panel, want to conduct a public trial of me and what occurred during the Third Test at Newlands.
"They want to conduct a public spectacle to, in the panel's words, have a "cleansing". I am not prepared for my family to be the washing machine for cricket's dirty laundry."
Warner's wife Candice shared her thoughts on Thursday.
"The fact that my daughters have to cop abuse because of incidents that have happened in the past is not fair," she told Triple M.
"It's still raw, we go to cricket so often watching David play and there's always people yelling things out at the crowd.
"Our family's already suffered and endured so much pain. Why do it now? What's it going to achieve?"
AAP