🏏 Warner's Plan To Overturn Ban

Good morning, it's Wednesday, 14 September. We know you've probably got footy finals fever like half the country at the moment (the only known cure is to watch more footy) but the summer of cricket has technically started, so we've got some cricket news for you as a form of relief before the next bout of the fever hits in a few days. Lemon and hot water help apparently. 

⏱ 1,289 words = 6 minutes

👀  Mic'd up kids are the best kids.  

THE MAIN GAME

🏏 Warner opens up on captaincy ban

There's a captaincy job going at Cricket Australia and David Warner says he could handle it. But 1st things 1st, he's got to get his lifetime leadership ban overturned. 

Golden points: Aaron Finch's retirement from one-day international cricket as captain has restarted the conversation around Warner's lifetime ban from captaining Australian international and domestic teams. 

• Warner was banned for 12 months from elite cricket and handed a lifetime captaincy ban for his involvement in the 2018 Cape Town Sandpaper scandal.

• Warner's punishment was harsher than that of then captain Steve Smith and Test rookie Cameron Bancroft, and Warner says he reckons it's because he was the face of the players during their standoff with Cricket Australia during contract talks in 2017.

• But Warner says that the dispute and his ban were handled by CA's Board, which now looks almost completely different, so with fresh faces and perhaps fresh opinions, he says his phone is on and is willing to talk about lifting his ban.

• Test captain Pat Cummins and Finch have backed Warner to captain again, saying he's served his punishment for the events in Cape Town.

• Warner appears to be a bit of a long shot at this stage to replace Finch as ODI skipper given the hurdles he has to jump over. Cummins will reportedly be offered the role but says it would be unrealistic for him to captain Australia in 3 formats with his workload already pretty chockers.

• CA will have to make the decision pretty soon because the men's team next ODI is in November and the next 50-over World Cup in India is about 12 months away.

The stat: Before Warner was banned for life, he did an exceptional job as captain of Australia. In 12 matches (3 ODIs, 9 T20s), Warner won 11 matches and all 3 one-dayers. He also captained Hyderabad to the 2016 Indian Premier League title, so he knows his way around a cricket field. 

What's next: Warner is reportedly going to have a chat with CA CEO Nick Hockley in the coming weeks but on the pitch, Australia's men's team leaves for India soon for a 3-match T20 series ahead of the T20 World Cup next month. 

QUICK SINGLES

🏉 AFL: Brisbane got some Berry good news at the AFL Tribunal. Lions star player Jarrod Berry had his one-match ban for making contact with Melbourne's Clayton Oliver overturned last night. Brisbane called in a neurosurgeon to convince the tribunal Berry was just trying to protect himself and was not intentionally going for Oliver's eyes when they had a scuffle in the Lions' upset win last Friday night. 

🏉 NRLW: The NRL has sanctioned Knights NRLW Indigenous star Caitlin Moran for her comments about the Queen. Moran called the Queen a "dumb dog" in an Instagram story hours after the Queen died on Friday morning. The NRL Integrity Unit says Moran breached the league's Code of Conduct and has proposed a one-match suspension and suspended fine of 25% of her salary. Moran has 5 days to appeal. 

🎾 Tennis: No waffling about for Australia at the Davis Cup. The Aussies beat Belgium 3-0 in their 1st round-robin game of the Davis Cup group stage, with Alex de Minaur and Jason Kubler winning their singles matches and Mat Ebden and Max Purcell winning the doubles. Australia next plays France (Thursday) and then Germany (Sunday). The top 2 teams in each of the 4 groups advance to the quarter-finals. 

🏉 Rugby: The Wallabies make 8 changes for their must-win match against the All Blacks tomorrow night. A new-look forward pack, a new fullback and new halves have been brought in by coach Dave Rennie in a match the Wallabies pretty much have to win if they are to win the Bledisloe Cup and The Rugby Championship (technically they could lose and still win TRC but it'd be very difficult). 

🥊 Boxing: Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua look set to get it on in the squared circle this December. After years of anticipation, upset losses, retirements and of course trash talk, the fight appears set for 3 December in the UK. The sticking point was the split of the prize purse - which will be enormous - but Fury's offer of a 60-40 split his way seems to have convinced Joshua to fight. 

LEFT OF FIELD

🏉 Rugby league: One of the great innovations in sports broadcasting has been mic'ing up the athletes - you get a real sense of what it's like being out there with them. Well, Queensland Rugby League applied that to a group of Under 7s kids playing their first game of tackle footy and it might just be the best thing ever. A handful of kids on different teams in the Ipswich and Brisbane junior rugby league comps were mic'd up and the results are truly amazing. One kid is cracking jokes - like what do you call a porcupine and a tortoise ... a slowpoke! - another kid is making his own sound effects as he fends off tacklers and there's one kid that gets in the zone before he unleashes HELL... or at least tries to. Who knows, the next Cameron Smith or Ali Briggenshaw might be one of them.

📽 Highlight reel: Check out this heads-up play by Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, who copped a deflection into his facemask and managed to make the catch.

📸 Photo finish: How about the Cairns Taipans' kits for the next NBL season!

THE POLLING BOOTH

Tuesday's result: 32.67% reckon the Paris 2024 Olympics are too far away just yet to start thinking about visiting. 

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

• ⚾️ 11:30am - MLB - Mariners v Padres - T-Mobile Park, Seattle - Foxtel, Kayo

• ⚽️ 05:00am (Thursday) - UEFA Champions League - Manchester City v Dortmund - Etihad Stadium, Manchester - Stan Sport

All times AEST

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