Adam Collins talks to David Warner about his transformation from a journalist-baiting, Joe-Root-punching brat into a happy-at-home Australian Test vice-captain.
He was so loud. David Warner, the bloke who went on Twitter with a handful of beers under his belt to take on two journalists. Who, after another handful of beers, took a swing at Joe Root and was suspended during an Ashes tour. Who racked up fines for nasty conduct without a care. A freakish talent, a compelling success story, but with this unpleasant, uninviting edge.
When picked for Australia from nowhere in January 2009, Warner was wild of bat, but utterly joyous. Four years on he was wild of tongue, but in a self-declared ‘bad place’. Two years ago he was disillusioned: a senior player, but increasingly an outsider. Off the drink, but distant. After the tragic death of Phillip Hughes he witnessed just months before, he had the right to be.
The 2015 Ashes tour proved the end of an era for Australia with a slew of retirements. When it was done, he found himself named vice-captain. “A hamstring twinge away from the Test captaincy,” I sniped at the time. Whatever the weight of the office, the idea of Warner leading Australia still seemed fanciful.
“I want to be the person who anyone can come to,” he says. “You have got to understand who you are. You are playing the game that you love; you want to have more friends than enemies. Where I have come in the last 12-18 months I have been able to actually speak to people and change their opinions and be a nicer person and show them what I really am. I am better for it and I play better cricket because of it.”
From loud, crude and cringeworthy, to kind, considered and mindful. No longer the brat, this is David Warner the man.
