David Warner's captaincy ban could be revoked as Cricket Australia provides huge update

David Warner in the past has proved his leadership quality by guiding Sunrisers Hyderabad to the 2016 Indian Premier League (IPL) title. Warner's cricketing career took a dramatic twist following the 2018 Sandpaper gate scandal during Cape Town Test as he was handed a lifetime captaincy ban by Cricket Australia (CA) after being found guilty. However, it looks like the board could soften its stance on the David Warner captaincy ban and might consider the opener for the vacant ODI leadership.

Will Cricket Australia lift David Warner's captaincy ban?

Currently, the captaincy seat of the ODI team is vacant after Aaron Finch retired from the format. Earlier, Warner had expressed his desire to lead Australia but said that all decisions rested with Cricket Australia. He had said, "Any opportunity you get asked captain, it's a privilege. For my circumstances, that's in Cricket Australia's hands. I can only concentrate on what I have to do and that's using the bat and trying to score as many runs as I can." 

According to an ESPNCricinfo report, Cricket Australia is contemplating lifting David Warner's lifetime leadership ban as soon as Friday, with directors looking at rewriting the organisation's code of ethics. Under current rules, players who are sanctioned under the code of ethics do not have the right to have the matter reviewed. If CA does decide to appoint Warner as the skipper then the board's code would need to be rewritten, something which the directors will discuss at Friday's board meeting in Hobart.

As per the report, the chairperson of Cricket Australia Lachlan Henderson in his statement said, "The view within Cricket Australia is that David is doing particularly well on the field and making a great contribution off the field. The first step in terms of David's leadership ban is to review the code and see if those sanctions are able to be reviewed. And the appropriate revisions to that code that would need to be made."

Henderson added that the code would be rewritten if necessary before the decision on the one-day captaincy is made. "Our intention is to review the code as quick as is practical. It's not in anyone's interest for us to delay that. It would be in time for any future leadership conversations in relation to David."

What is the 'Sandpaper Gate scandal' that rocked the Australia cricket team

Former Australia captain Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner were found to be involved in an incident where they attempted to tamper with the ball during the third Test against South Africa which was played in Cape Town. The incident occurred on the third day of the Test match. Cameras caught Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball with something yellow. The young batsman tried to hide the object in front of his trousers. He later showed on-field umpires a microfiber cloth and asserted that this was the object he was using to polish the red ball. However, in the press conference later that day, admitted to using yellow tape to alter the condition of the ball. The material used was sandpaper, which is actually used to maintain bats.