Australia opener David Warner, who recently retired from Test and ODI cricket, said his upcoming autobiography will make for an interesting read, though the date of publication is not set yet, and added that it will raise many eyeballs, as it will have some details on the 2018 sandpaper-gate in Cape Town.
“It’s not potentially going to be around what I know, what others know, because then it just becomes a tit-for-tat. It’s not that kind of story. I want it to be about my journey, my upbringing. There are going to be a few things in there. You have the Joe Root saga (when he punched Root in 2013).”
“There are so many different things in there, there are a lot of things in there. It’ll be an interesting read and when the time comes we can all pick it to pieces. There are going to be a lot of things in that book that I think are going to raise some eyebrows,” said Warner to Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan on their Prairie Club Fire podcast.
Talking of the happenings in the 2018 sandpaper-gate, he further said, “It’s something that’s been thought of. You look down the track to where we are today, it is in the past. It does keep getting brought up. There’s been a lot of speculation, a lot of comments about it, but from me, it’s about this team moving forward.”
“It’s really important that the Australian cricket team’s in a great space, that we’re playing well in all three formats. I think that’s the utmost priority. My side of the story and all that, that could be told whenever.”
“There are going to be some things in the book that are definitely going to be related to 2018. I’ll have to edit a few chapters now, there’s a few more that have been added. It was 1500 pages, now it’s probably 2000,” he elaborated.
While many call Warner as a modern-day great, John Buchanan, who was the Australia head coach in a successful period from 1999 to 2007, said he didn’t think in that way. “I don’t think so. I think he’s certainly performed exceptionally well throughout this career, he sits on 8000+ runs, he’s played over 100 Test matches, over 160 ODIs and nearly 100 T20s.”
“His averages are reasonable compared to all those in the various formats, his strike rate is obviously higher because of the way he plays the game. On performance base, he’s right up there.”
“But greats of the game, in my opinion, are people that really do and have done something exceptional that others just can’t match, so therefore you automatically go to the (Don) Bradman, (Glenn) McGraths, (Shane) Warnes, they’re the greats in my opinion. Others come close, but are just not in that category and I don’t see Warner in that category,” he said on SEN Radio.