The path for David Warner to resume a leadership role is becoming clearer with Cricket Australia proposing to amend its code of conduct with respect to long-term sanctions.
Warner, the former Test vice-captain, is currently serving a life-time leadership ban for his part in the Cape Town ball tampering affair in 2018, for which he was also handed a 12-month suspension from playing.
The opening batter has been unable to appeal under CA’s current guidelines, which state that once a sanction is accepted – as it was in Warner’s case – the player in question does not have the right to review.
But that could change under a proposed amendment to rules confirmed by CA on Friday, in the clearest indication yet that the 35-year-old could again be permitted to assume a leadership role. “The amendment would allow a person to request a penalty that they had accepted be reviewed after an appropriate period of time,” CA said in a statement after its board met on Friday. “The onus would be on the applicant to prove they had undergone genuine reform relevant to the offence they were sanctioned for.