Fame, money 'root' of 'deluded' Warner's behaviour, says Oz media

The Australian media has pointed out money and fame as the culprits behind the behaviour of Australian opener David Warner, who was suspended from the rain-washed ICC Champions Trophy clash against New Zealand for punching England batsman Joe Root in the face at a Birmingham bar on Sunday.

Stating that Warner has 'acted like an oaf' and deserved swift and immediate punishment, The Sydney Morning Herald said that Warner is just a name among the legion of players who are not good enough to justify the hype that accompanies their underachievement, and the money that they are being paid.

According to the report, Warner is currently leading a rock star lifestyle with a club cricketer's average, for which he seems deluded by the trappings his limited achievements have afforded, adding that Warner's fame and fortune is mostly a stroke of good fortune as he is the right man for Australian cricket, but at the wrong time

However, the report said that Warner cannot claim to have contributed vastly to the game's financial well-being, being the beneficiary of more than a century of goodwill accumulated by far less well remunerated players, adding that he has shirked the responsibility that comes with holding such an important post.

The report also said that it cannot be said that Warner is the victim of a rapacious media or merely a participant in some high spirits among the boys, adding that the only way Australia will get the English out is by knocking them out, literally, if it comes to be true.

Although the report suggested drawing a line in the sand to control the unruly cricketers, it, however, said that putting Warner on the next flight home would not solve the issue, adding that riches bestowed on 'elite' Australian players through a contractual system fails to distinguish between the 'relative plodders' of today and the superstars of the past.

The report further said that the contracts would grow in proportion with the vast new television rights deal recently signed by Cricket Australia, and augmented by the monopoly money of the Indian Premier League.