New Delhi, India

David Warner, on Wednesday (December 07), withdrew his application for his captaincy ban review via a five-page explosive statement which he posted on his Instagram page. With the title, 'My family is more important to me than cricket', Warner shared an explosive statement by coming down heavily on the legal counsel saying that the comments made by them were offensive and unhelpful. Thus, the swashbuckling left-hander further asserted that the review panel acted opposite to Cricket Australia's (CA) findings and now want to conduct a public spectacle out of him at the expense of his family.

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Taking to his official Instagram handle, Warner wrote, "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. 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."

"Regrettably, I have no practical alternative at this point in time but to withdraw my application. I am not prepared to subject my family or my teammates to further trauma and disruption by accepting a departure from the way in which my application should be dealt with pursuant to the Code of Conduct. Some things are more important than cricket," he further highlighted.

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"It appears that the Panel has given no more than passing consideration to issues of player welfare and the interests of Australian cricket and is instead determined to conduct a public lynching. Since that Test and even though my ban from leadership roles may never be lifted, I have taken it upon myself to reform, to rehabilitate and to transform my approach to the game. I have served and been subject to a crushing, unprecedented, penalty that has horribly impacted me and my family for the past nearly five years."

Meanwhile, a Cricket Australia (CA) spokesperson assured that the board has backed Warner's bid to have the hearing in private.

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"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 statement said. "We supported David's wish for these discussions to be heard behind closed doors and respect his decision to withdraw his application. David is a very senior and highly regarded member of the Australian team who has been a great ambassador for the game as a whole since his return from a year-long ban," it further added. 

It is to be noted that Warner was given a lifetime captaincy ban by CA in the aftermath of the Sandpaper Gate fiasco that rocked Australian cricket during their 2018 tour of South Africa for four Tests. While Smith was also handed a one-year-ban and received a leadership ban of couple of years, it got revoked and he is set to lead Australia in the second and final Test versus West Indies in Adelaide. Meanwhile, things haven't been the same for Warner as he hasn't been able to get rid of his lifetime captaincy ban.