Professional sport can be a chore; it can be glorious; it can bring despair and elation. If you are good enough for long enough, you can make a comfortable living. If you are good for 15 minutes, fame may be the limit of the rewards.
Playing a sport for your country brings pressure, pain and scrutiny. “Never let the pressure exceed the pleasure,” veteran US baseball manager Joe Maddon would preach, and the longer you play, the closer a player can get to that maxim. No matter how long you play, you are a long time retired (except Jimmy Anderson) and David Warner’s time has finally come.
On day two of his SCG Test finale, Cricket NSW inducted a pair of its most glorious players into the Blues Hall of Fame: left-arm fast bowler Mike “Big Roy” Whitney and obdurate (I’m borrowing the term from cricket media of the day) opening batsmen John Dyson. Both played club cricket for Randwick (now Randwick Petersham), both preceded the era of 20-over biff and both preceded Warner’s time at Coogee Oval.
Randwick cricket draws its members from state and private schools, professional and blue-collar communities. Usman Khawaja and Warner both played for Coastal United Junior Cricket Club, well and truly within the Randwick club catchment. The major complaint about their schoolboy performances was that no one else got a bat, and very few got a bowl.
Warner ended up at Easts (formerly Waverley Cricket Club) and Khawaja went to Randwick for senior cricket. A dispute with the Randwick secretary was suggested for the unlikely move from the Matraville housing commission to the Cranbrook- and Scots College-dominated Eastern Suburbs club. Eventually, Warner returned to Coogee Oval in the most unfortunate circumstances.
David Warner walks out to bat for the final time in Test cricket.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Randwick Cricket Club had already produced Test opener Alan Turner, another Matraville boy, and Whitney added a deeper cricket flavour to a suburb that was better known for league and union players. Whitney grew up a few hundred yards from the Warners and favoured the myrtle and cardinal of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, but the sliding doors event of a knee injury sent him cricket’s way and eventually into the hall of fame.
Dyson was a Sutherland Shire boy originally and T20 wasn’t invented when he faced the new ball. His near 10,000 first-class runs were made at a somewhat slower tempo than Warner’s; preserving your wicket at a premium in that day of slim-edged bats, rare helmet use and fast bowlers who were happy to challenge a batsman’s back-foot technique.
So back to the Warner return to club cricket. Steve Smith and Dave were to serve their suspensions for the ball-tampering affair by returning to the grassroots: Smith at Sutherland and Warner at Randwick. To their eternal credit, they embraced the club scene.
David Warner and Steve Smith playing grade cricket during their suspensions in 2018.Credit: Getty
Whitney has been president of Randwick Petersham for 23 years. His greatest pride – and there are plenty – lies in what he saw from Warner during his grassroots return. Warner set the example at training, working as hard as he did for a Test match or an IPL season. He coached the kids, he had conversations with his fellow first-graders, which included a young Jason Sangha and Daniel Sams. Sams has become a widely travelled T20 specialist; Sangha a Thunder and Blues player.
Warner made copious runs for his club, never taking it easy or under-rating his club opponents. Exemplary would best describe his club contribution during the international ban.
When Randwick played Sutherland at Coogee Oval that summer a crowd of 2000-3000 turned up. Shane Watson was in the Shire line-up. This was club cricket in excelsis. Warner and Smith signed autographs until it was too dark to see. Steve Waugh’s son Austin hit the winning runs in the final over. Warner and Smith, having brought the game into the most miserable of disrepute, were now serving the greater good with unrestrained energy.
David Warner fronts the media at the height of the ball-tampering scandal.Credit: Getty
Warner’s brewery provided the post-match refreshments. The kids from Coastal United were invited in to the sheds. There was no guarantee that after this penance his career would barrel off down the yellow brick road again, yet he covered the difficult yards.
The “Warner Way” – the unorthodox and unique journey toward a Test career via the shortest form –is perhaps mirrored in his forced, but embraced, return to club cricket: the simplicities of community cricket, the minimisation of competitive stress that allows the pleasure to always be several lengths ahead of the pressure proved anathema. He served his time; as did Smith. They missed the game and the game missed them.
“D. Warner No.31” will no longer appear at the top of the team sheet. Renewal is inevitable. Coaches, captains and selectors tell their players: “Don’t leave anything out there on the park.” It’s an expression of commitment to yourself and teammates; it’s a credo of discipline.
I don’t think David Warner left a single run out there, or of batting partners. I don’t think he failed to chase every single ground ball with every ounce of effort. And not many could say that.
He made mistakes, but Warner’s enforced club cricket return told us everything about the man
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06.01.2024
Professional sport can be a chore; it can be glorious; it can bring despair and elation. If you are good enough for long enough, you can make a comfortable living. If you are good for 15 minutes, fame may be the limit of the rewards.
Playing a sport for your country brings pressure, pain and scrutiny. “Never let the pressure exceed the pleasure,” veteran US baseball manager Joe Maddon would preach, and the longer you play, the closer a player can get to that maxim. No matter how long you play, you are a long time retired (except Jimmy Anderson) and David Warner’s time has finally come.
On day two of his SCG Test finale, Cricket NSW inducted a pair of its most glorious players into the Blues Hall of Fame: left-arm fast bowler Mike “Big Roy” Whitney and obdurate (I’m borrowing the term from cricket media of the day) opening batsmen John Dyson. Both played club cricket for Randwick (now Randwick Petersham), both preceded the era of 20-over biff and both preceded Warner’s time at Coogee Oval.
Randwick cricket draws its members from state and private schools, professional and blue-collar communities. Usman Khawaja and Warner both played for Coastal United Junior Cricket Club, well and truly within the Randwick club catchment. The major complaint about their schoolboy performances was that no one else got a........
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