What Did Warner Say?

Those Aussies are at it again. Winning that is. But winning with class? Let’s just say they give sportsmanship the arse. And given the ugly scenes of David Warner abusing Quinton de kock as the teams walked up the dressing room stairs at Durban, the arguments surrounding Australia’s uber aggressive brand of cricket will get recycled all over again.

Many Australians will scoff at Poms getting on their high horse about cricketing etiquette. And in many ways they’re right. England’s cricketers have frequently behaved appallingly in recent years. They’ve urinated on the Oval outfield, thrown jelly beans at opposing players, and the aggressive posturing by the likes of Swann, Prior, and Broad when we won the Ashes down under in 2010/11 was completely unnecessary and unsightly. But they won the series so we all forgive them.

However, much as bad winners like to pretend that their aggression gives them the edge, as if acting like a prick is the reason they win rather than their skill, that doesn’t mean everyone has to like it.

Although I like to see a bit of needle in test matches – it’s good to know that the players are emotionally invested in a contest – it completely turns me off when players start acting like macho jocks at best, and brainless animals at worst.

Warner is certainly a player who oversteps the mark with alarming frequency. We all knows he’s a brilliant batsman, but we also know that he’s a complete liability when the red mist descends. I wonder what his two daughters would think if they ever see the footage of their father repeatedly trying to start a fight with de Kock – presumably because the latter had the temerity to score some runs.

You might be interested to know that Warner was named Australian Sports Dad of The Year in 2016. Yes, you read that correctly. After receiving the award he talked emotionally about how the responsibility of fatherhood has moulded him into a less volatile person. Someone please pass me a corset for I fear my sides are literally splitting.

However, rather than write another article about sledging, Australian sporting culture, or whether the ICC should do more to crack down on crackpot behaviour, I suggest we play a little game instead. Let’s call it the inaugural TFT caption competition.

What was our Davey saying to the South African wicket-keeper as he confronted him in the stairwell? I’ll ‘kick things off’ by suggesting the following:

“Hey Quinton de Kock, your a bit of a cock aren’t you. Yeah that’s right, a cock. Because you’re name is de Kock … yeah … you cock”.

Well, he’s always been a cerebral character has our Davey.

James Morgan

48 comments

  • Hadn’t seen this. Brilliant. Warner is a law unto himself. But really what is said on the field should stay on the field. I’m sure the authorities will be having a word. One thing for sure it’ll liven up the series. That Australian bowling unit is looking the best in the world at the moment.

    • the Australian and South Afrian bowling attacks are the best in the world at the moment. not one is better than the other at this moment.

  • Oh dear. Does this really matter? The Aussies have been doing this for decades, well we don’t know all the facts here yet, but I think these things generally are blown up out of proportion. Bit bored with it really.

  • It has been reported here on Sydney that De Kock made a derogatory comment about his wife.

    That wouldn’t surprise me at all.

    Narelle

    • Warner’s wife once shagged Sonny Bill Williams in a pub toilet & has a list of “celebrity” ex-boyfriends a mile long. If he’s not used to comments about her by now …

      In any case it sounds like QDK was reacting verbally to several hours of tripe spouted by Warner, so if he can’t hack it he probably shouldn’t dish it

  • Why bother with the Ashes next time ? Just stick Stokes and Warner in the ring together for fifteen rounds.

    • No. Stick them in the ring with the now 68 year old Peter (Popeye) Willey. My money would be on Willey still being able to take the pair of them with one arm tied behind his back. I suspect it is no coincidence that Warner has a habit of baiting the less physically imposing opponents like De Kock and Root. Strikes me as more the school bully than the hard man.

  • Ja Davey, you want to see me put on a fake beard and do my Amla impression ja?

  • Well we all know you can beat someone senseless and keep playing. So I expect this will blow over soon enough.

    Reports are that de Kock said something about his family. Clearly this wasn’t sledging de Kock but actually wanting to get him so I expect that this is story is true.

  • I remember some pretty unsavoury incidents involving those sporting giants ‘The Underarm Bothers’ (aka Chappell) many moons ago, occasionally involving insults and threats to kids after autographs.
    I don’t think Warner is any more highly strung than Stokes. What would Stokes have done if a player insulted his wife, as it is alleged De Kock had. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been able to let it lie.
    It’s interesting to see the way authorities in different games deal with this sort of thing. Footie, where petulance is the order of the day, gets to grip with this sort of thing, processing its justice quickly, as its high media profile makes it embarrassing to leave for eager tabloids to debate. Rugby, being a more macho sport, tends to let these sorts of things go and let the players and teams sort it themselves. Cricket meanwhile, still tries to brush things under the carpet and pretend players are still from the, ‘play up play up and play the game’ school.
    The reality is all these sports draw their personnel from a society where to be reactive is the norm. I remember as a minor league player decades ago there being unsavoury incidents almost every game involving player confrontations.

    • Cricket is changing. In the Surrey League we had about 12 suspensions handed out last season (and many more warnings), including a couple where the suspension covers the 2019 season. It is interesting that almost all the incidents were top division 1st XI sides. The lower division and 2nd XI’s never (or rarely) have such issues.

      • Your right AndyB, changing for the worse I’m afraid. I play in the Wiltshire League and I was subjected to the worse bit of vile abuse last season I have ever experienced in all the years I have been playing the game. My parents, my wife and kids, every ball, between overs you name it. My shots (good or bad), my play and misses (a lot), my leaves (loads), “effing” this and your a “c***”. His captain allowed it, so other players joined in. Not a word was said to my team mates, just me. All he got was a one match suspended sentence, suspended for one single match, a joke and the Spirit of Cricket thrown out the window.
        I’ve played at a decent level, here and abroad, played in rep teams, toured overseas, I know sledging well, I know aggression well, I know as a batsmen I will be getting something (when I don’t, it’s actually more off putting then getting it) and as a bowler I have to back up sledging, eyeballing etc. with a decent ball otherwise I will look the mug. If you sledge, back it up and shut up. I’m all for gamesmanship and keeping within the Spirit of Cricket. But this clown playing the game we all love, was an insult to it and should of got a season ban, he was that bad I immediately thought of the football terraces and how this jerk would of fitted in. Thankfully I won’t have play against his team this season as they were relegated, no surprise there.
        My letter to the Wiltshire League and ECB were ignored – the issues lie at the top and yobs get away with it.
        Warner and QDK was an off field incident so it won’t be in the umpires report. Actually the more I see the video, I wonder what did Warner do wrong after QDK’s alleged comments. He snapped and snarled, got nowhere near QDK, so handbags really.

        • I’ve been playing league cricket for 22 years this year, and have played in 4 different county leagues. I see no evidence that things are getting worse. The sledging we got in the 90s was every bit as spicy as it is now. Maybe there are isolated problems in certain leagues.

          Nowadays, I would estimate that 80-90% of the league cricket games I play are played in a good spirit by both sides, with banter kept to a minimum, and generally pretty friendly/jokey, with captains quick to step in to intervene if any of their players crosses the line, and everyone going for a pint together after the game.

          In the other 10% or so of games, its usually the umpiring that is the flash point. A square leg umpire who refuses to give a huge run out because “he wasn’t looking” can often lead to an argument. Occasionally a bowler will have a pop at the batsman, but its usually met with rolled eyes and the slips rarely if ever join in. In 22 years, I’ve only ever seen one fight on a cricket pitch, and that was back in the late 90s and it was two blokes with prior history from outside cricket.

          The one thing that always cheers me up is to remember that almost every club I’ve ever played against that were genuinely a bunch of tossers, are now without exception struggling in the bottom divisions, if not having folded entirely, their better players having inevitably got fed up of having arguments every game.

          • Like you AB, I have played in several leagues over 45 years (inc. Hampshire, Surrey, Western – briefly) and problems are the exception, but when they occur they need to be stamped on. One interesting recent development has been younger players getting frustrated in timed games when we play for a draw, and I am sure this is a side effect of short form cricket. No problem for me as I just point out they can’t be much good if they can’t get a pensioner out (which always shuts them up), but it does make it more difficult to get our younger bats to know when to shut up shop when they are abused for doing so .

            • Funnily enough we play win/lose cricket, and there is something of a movement (including from me) to use the bonus point system to reward teams for bowling the opposition out rather than just sticking 7 men on the boundary and boring them to death (we also want to bring in a fielding circle)

              • Win/lose does solve that problem but makes the game poorer. Best game I ever played in was a draw producing 637 runs in one afternoon.

  • davey knows qdk is a better cricketer than him…
    along with the fact that qdk has apparetnly insulted his wife.
    he is not going to be a happy bunny
    warner is certainly worse than stokes.
    stokes was sticking up for some people being discriminated against.

    what is most confusing is how warner gets ‘sports dad of the year’ then two years later goes and fluffs it…
    is not as though stokes has a history of being a good boy, then muck it up
    as gilchrist has said, davey has a lot to be thankful for to uzzie and paine and smith for intervening

    • What a load of rubbish – QDK a better cricketer than Warner??? The De Villers run out shows how good this bloke is in the field, his batting has dipped a little of late, but still a major threat and one of the big test wickets bowlers want.
      You insult someone’s wife, you have to expect something back. You may recall the bonehead who had a go at McGrath’s wife when she was dying of cancer. Both Aussies would of been forgiven if they physically reacted.
      Stokes is a thug, a hothead who can’t handle his drink and if that can be defended, then society is in a pretty bad place.
      Good on Warner for sticking up for his family.

      • Funny that in two formats qdk’s average is higher…
        that happens to be in the two shorter formats actually, and DW is supposedly the king of the shorter formats for aus.
        also consider that where qdk’s average is lower than DW’s, it’s in tests, where qdk is also squatting 6 times every 4 minutes for half of the test, while davey watches on from wherver it is that he fields…
        when it comes to looks qdk is a class apart
        and think about the fact that qdk is 6 years DW’s junior, there is a slim chance that he may end up with a few more records to his name?
        just thought i’d put that out there…
        we won’t bother talking about DW’s other off field muck ups

        • Stick to test cricket, which is the debate here. So “Warner watches on” then….I bet De Villiers wished he had. I have a funny feeling Warner covers more miles than QDK in a test, might be wrong though………….
          QDK’s ODI average is 2 runs average higher, Warner has 14 hundreds and 17 50’s compared to QDK 13 hundreds and 15 50’s – pretty even. In T20’s QDK is 2.9 runs higher with only 2 50’s, Warner has 13. I’ll give the gong to Warner. In tests it’s daylight, in short Warner 21 100’s to QDK’s 3, 6225 runs to 1752.
          No, QDK is not a better cricketer.

          • give it to you that with however many more years on the game, warner is currently looking a better test cricketer. but then it’s his job more than qdk’s in tests to score plenty of runs. qdk job is to stick around and play with the tail. take bairstow – how many more runs would he score in tests if he had the gloves taken away from him and given a higher position to play in? the WACA springs to mind, but he had the gloves then
            odis, warner has got 1 more century and 2 more half centuries than de kock in 14 more innings… bit of stats tells you that warner gets a century every 8 matches and de kock gets one every 6.9… so at the current rate i don’t reckon it will be any time too long before de kock overtakes.
            both are definitely class players, i couldn’t agree more. just de kock is marginally more class than dw

      • You mean when Sarwan responses to McGrath’s homophobic comment and didn’t know that McGrath’s wife was sick? For me the “so-called line” is the problem as it’s very clearly defined by the Aussies but what happens if someone disagrees. Besides it’s been commented that Warner regularly crosses the line with the personal. Can give it but can’t take it.

      • “Good on Warner for sticking up for his family.”
        Really? Surely all he has done is made things worse for his family. If Warne had kept his cool, no one, including his family, would have know anything was said. Now, thanks to Warner loosing his temper, we’ve all been reminded that his wife has a past and, in the age of google, that was a silly thing to do.

  • What aggressive posturing from Broad, Swann and Prior are you referring to James after winning the Ashes 2010-11? If I remember it rightly, Broad wasn’t in the side. He had been sent home injured and missed the victory. There was the humour of Swann’s blogs (often laughing at his mate Anderson) and the Sprinkler Dance (source actually was Collingwood) but pretty innocuous surely? Punter lost his temper in the match when his side were 98 all out at Melbourne but forgivable perhaps in the circumstances. He was replaced as captain by Clarke who was gracious in defeat and gallant. Didn’t it end peacefully with our team sitting on the grass passing around a victory cigar? Or is that just an over fond memory?

    As for Warner. Is he the Aussie equivalent of Stokes? I mean in incidents of flaring up on the field…

    • I was referring to the clique that apparently developed in that successful England side. I remember seeing interviews and articles on how Swann, Prior, Broad and a few others liked to really give it to the Aussies and almost copied the blueprint (in terms of sledging etc) that previous great Aussie teams had. I know a few of the Aussies thought that particular group went over the top in a lot of ways back in 2010/11, which is one reason why Ponting sided with Pietersen in the row over his sacking and the culture within the dressing room at the time.

      A quick Google search unearthed this in which Ponting referred to a ‘clique of bullies’ in the England dressing room https://www.express.co.uk/sport/cricket/520296/Ricky-Ponting-supports-Kevin-Pietersen-over-ECB

      There was also a Twitter conversation in which Ponting was asked who the most arrogant cricketers he played against were. His answer was something along the lines of “an ex-England off-spinner, the bloke who kept wicket to him, plus a couple of fast bowlers from the same team”.

      • I am afraid it is a consequence of not having proper leaders in too many international and county sides. I have already mentioned Willey, and he made sure Botham stayed on the right side of the line, but also imagine if Swann had come up through Middlesex at the same time as Tufnell. He would either have learned to behave (or at least restrict it to playing the fool like Tufnell) or he would have learnt the hard way from Edmonds and Gatting.You have to wonder how many of the failures to make the transition to the England test side in the last 10-15 years are down to the toxic atmosphere around some players and the repeated failure of England captains to tackle it.

  • In my view, it’s a pity James that you’ve chosen to focus on this aspect on an outstanding Test match and not even mention any other aspect of the game (like Starc’s bowling or Markram’s batting – the latter didn’t seem to have any problem with Aussie verbals until Tim Paine caught him with a classy piece of wicketkeeping).

    I watched most of the game but (call me Arsene!) didn’t see the session where this particular incident happened. I’d say that the commentators noticed plenty of chatter during the match from the Australians but didn’t regard any of it as going beyone the pale. If the Aussies have included some references to rival sponsors to get the hosts to turn the stump mics off (as I’ve seen claimed), that’s certainly quite inventive! Perhaps someone should have ‘lost’ the corridor cam footage as I seem to remember someone else doing not too long ago?However I wouldn’t be surprised if some in SA are still annoyed about the FDP ball-tampering allegations when SA were last in Oz and were looking for a bit of revenge. I’m not commenting on the specific incident as I don’t know who said what to who – and, at the time of writing, none of us do.

    I wanted to add a bit about the crowds. The match was poorly attended as has often been the case in Durban. The ground and the SA cricket authorities clearly should be asked some tough questions about what they are doing about this – and face penalties if they don’t have some decent answers. However the crowd also wasn’t quite as poor as it may look. 7000 tickets were sold for days three and four (they claim) so plenty of spectators were either in the shade of the stands or didn’t attend because SA were doing so poorly. One thing Durban did get right was provide an excellent pitch which had something for everyone.

    SA have a very poor record in Durban (just one win in the last eight). Port Elizabeth for the Second Test is a much happier hunting ground for the home team (four wins in the last five Tests). Perhaps they can bounce back and set up an engrossing series – but they need some of the senior batsmen (Amla, FDP, Elgar) to stand up if they’re going to do so. Then we can all concentrate on what’s going on on the field….

    • Hi Simon. Due to the snow and schools being closed (which meant prolonged periods of childcare in which Mickey sodding Mouse was the only entertainment allowed on TV) I wasn’t able to watch the test so can’t really comment. I read that it was a very good game though. Most people seemed to be talking about the Warner stuff so thought I’d go with that. At least I’d seen the footage!

  • I tire of this talk about a line which cannot and can be crossed. All sledging is inherently personal and designed to destablise the person being sledged. You are either able to tolerate it or you aren’t. This bullshit about some things being ok, and that some things aren’t and some people are allowed to decide what is and isn’t ok, is an excuse offered in defence by people who the sledging has had the desired effect on. Warner no doubt dishes it out so much because he personally understands its effect. If he reacts like this towards his opponents at the ground during the day, it should be treated in the same as if it happened on the field.

  • Have those nasty Australians gone and offended delicate English sensibilities again? Heaven forbid.

  • Just yet another increasingly regular unsavoury incident. I can’t be bothered with it.

    The game is failing, many people and kids are leaving or put off by the verbals in amateur games and yet no one does anything. It’s a hobby, unlike paid professional sport.

    WEPL is having ever increasing amounts of disciplinary incidents and yet by their own admission it’s getting worse.. they simply don’t know how to fix it .

    We were chasing a crap total, I opened and we got to within 10 by the 30th over.. the verbal abuse (and it is abuse as I don’t know them, I don’t want to talk to them so it’s not banter) was so bad, I just walked off the field. I’d literally had enough and didn’t want to play any longer. I’ve been to war, I serve my country and have seen and done things these people can’t imagine.. a Saturday is supposed to be fun and a hobby and the verbals just makes it unenjoyable. I see why people are quitting

  • Loved the line “bad winners like to pretend that their aggression gives them the edge, as if acting like a prick is the reason they win rather than their skill”. It’s a point nobody gets. Australia doesn’t win because they sledge and sook and intimidate number 11 batsmen.
    Australia is the bully with the glass jaw. They dish it out but they can’t take it. I used to love the Aussie cricket team as a kid… for many year now they’ve just been an embarrassment. Even a rare away win (which they should have been proud of) is overshadowed by more whinging and bad sportsmanship.

  • After listening to Warner’s latest interview, I think the time has come to admit that the real victim here is the English language.

  • As a South African I personally believe De Kok probably went to far with that comment. That’s provided Warner did not insult his mother or sister. which it sounds like might have been the case. its the 12th and there is still no clarity on what Warner said. that’s a bit weird. Have the Australians not made it public because it was also pretty hardcore or what ? We know Warner called him a Bushpig and a cock. Bushpig ? , seriously De Kok, , not justify slagging his wife over that reference. as for calling him a cock, well de kok could just have said “you so short my cock is taller than you “. But Warner you started throwing the cock word around which just opened you up to a good old personal sledge. you are a big mouth on and of the field so you got to have the balls to man up when someones hits you for a six in the sledge department…………..lets just hope this is done and dusted now, get on with the good cricket that is happening.

  • Who knows what Warner said but you can guess he was “”vile and disgusting since he is part of a team that want to turn down the stump mikes.

    • Yes it’s Australia’s fault the broadcasters aren’t complying with the ICC guidelines.

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