If You Want To Have Those Conversations, Just Have Them - David Warner Says Nobody From SRH Told Him About His Axing

Ex-Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner opened up on his stance with the franchise, stating that he wasn’t informed about being dropped from the team altogether.

Warner had a huge falling out with the management in IPL 2021 season and he was removed as the captain before subsequently being axed from the playing XI itself. This sent the wrong message to the team players, Warner said.

“If you are going to drop a captain and then not pick him in the team after what he has done, what message does that send to the young kids in the team? What message does that send to the rest of the group? What hurt me the most is that the other guys are now thinking, ‘oh, this could happen to me’.”

“At the end of the day, whatever happens, cop it, cop it on the chin. If you want to have those conversations, just have them. It’s not hard. Don’t shy away from them. I am not going to bite. I am going to sit here and accept that for what it is because you are not picking me in the team,” Warner said on the show, Backstage with Boria.

“If the fans see something like that, it hurts them” – David Warner

Following his axing, the fans of SRH and IPL as a whole were quite outraged with how poorly a legend of the league like David Warner was being treated. The episode would have hurt quite a lot of youngsters who grow up idolising the cricketers.

“It was the pain that I knew was going to hit the fans. They are what makes a franchise. They grow your brand. The greatest teams in the world have icon players. I have been there for a long time. Kane Williamson has been there for a long time, so has Bhuvneshwar (Kumar). You build a brand and you move forward with that brand.”

“They really felt it and it hurts me because I am passionate about where I play. I will connect in any way I can with the fans because I know how important fans are.

“Those kids in the playground wanting to be Sachin, Virat, myself, Williamson, Steve Smith – you name those players, they want to be us. We have to connect with them. If they see something like that, it hurts them,” Warner mentioned.

After leaving the franchise, Warner will be entering the auction pool for the IPL 2022 mega auction.

Also Read – IPL 2022 Auction: 5 Young Indian Players Who Can Fetch a Million Dollar Deal