David Warner Should Be Short-term T20 World Cup Captain Of Australia – Shane Watson

Former Australia National Cricket Team all-rounder Shane Watson, who is currently the president of the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), has said that the veteran opener David Warner should be the short-term T20 World Cup captain of the Australia National Cricket Team.

Current Australian T20I captain Aaron Finch, who has already retired from ODIs, has said that he is looking forward to playing in the upcoming season of the Big Bash League (BBL) before making a call on retirement.

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Team Australia don’t have any T20I series scheduled until next August, which means Finch will not be seen in action in international cricket for a long period of time. Reportedly, CA officials are likely to pick a new T20I captain as they turn their eye to the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Watson has backed Warner to take over the T20I captaincy on a short-term basis.

“I’ve had an opinion on who should have been the short-term T20 World Cup captain for a while, and that’s David Warner,” Watson told reporters, as quoted by the West Australian.

“But that seems to have been caught up in the bureaucracy of Australian cricket because of a couple of lines of a code of conduct legal document.”

The veteran opener already has the experience of leading the Aussies in international cricket. However, he is currently serving a lifetime captaincy ban, which was imposed on him following his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal, famously known as the Sandpapergate scandal.

However, that sanction is likely to set to be soon reviewed, with CA asking their head of integrity to propose a change to their code of conduct to allow for a review of previous bans.

For me, David Warner is an excellent decision-maker under pressure – Shane Watson

Watson further praised Warner and said that he is a very good leader and an “excellent decision-maker under pressure”.

“For me, David Warner is an excellent decision-maker under pressure, tactually he’s very good, he’s a very good leader and he’s very experienced as well.”

“I’m just disappointed that for his sake he hasn’t had an opportunity to lead the Aussies because he’s a very good leader.

“Obviously it’s not a long-term solution, but another T20 World Cup is coming up in a few years and Dave is still going to be performing very well,” he said.

Watson further said:

“How hard is it to change one or two lines in a legal document to make sure that someone who has paid for his mistakes and then some (can captain the side)?

“The code of conduct documents can be changed by someone in two seconds.”

Also Read: ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Not Going To Retire; I’ll Play BBL And See Where We Sit After That – Aaron Finch