Image courtesy of: The Indian Express

Warner will be watched over by senior members of the team

After weeks of silence and keeping out of the media limelight, Australia opening batsman David Warner has openly admitted that his poor behaviour directly resulted in Cricket Australia firing head coach Mickey Arthur.

With Darren Lehmann now in charge and giving Warner a “clean slate”, the opening batsman is determined to stay out of trouble as he will be “on the first plane home” if he finds himself embroiled in yet another controversy.

Warner has also accepted that his opening spot is pretty much all but occupied and he has now set his sights on the number six spot, which was vacated by veteran batsman Michael Hussey when he retired at the beginning of the year.

“I’ve been spoken to about batting six and that’s the role I’m looking forward to being part of this team,” Warner said. “If I get into this team and I bat six, I’ll be doing everything I can to fill that Mike Hussey role and come out and have that intent from ball one, because I see that as the acceleration number in the team. His intent that he had over the years he played was magnificent and I feel I can play that role as well.

“You have to sum up the game situation. You could be come in at four or five for nothing or you could be coming in at 400 and it’s up to me to try to adapt to that situation, to try to come out and accelerate from there or to try to grind it out like the boys did the other night before stumps.”

The 26-year-old also revealed that he was so infuriated when being told that he had not been selected to play in the first Ashes Test at Nottingham that he broke down in tears when telling his family the grim news.

“As a kid growing up you want to play in the Ashes and after that incident I went back to my room and I was pretty shattered for a week and a half, two weeks,” he admitted. “I still feel the guilt of what happened. I feel myself it’s led to me being in this situation at the moment. Things would have been different, I would have been able to play those warm-up games and I could have pressed my claims to play in this first Test but that’s me. I put my hand up and accepted the consequences and now it’s about me putting as many runs on the board these next two games and press forward.

“I rang my mum and dad and told them I wasn’t playing. And I kind of broke down on the phone to mum and it’s just one of those things you ask your mum and dad what could I have done better in those situations and you don’t want to really go into it as much but I’ve matured a lot since that incident and now it’s all about me trying to play cricket again.”

Warner was also given a rude awakening about how much his behaviour had affected others when Arthur was terminated.

“It was probably another thing that was gutting, that I may have played a part in that,” Warner said. “But that’s the business we’re in and James Sutherland explained the reasons why that happened and that’s the thing that we have to do, we’re professional athletes, we have to move on from that and now Darren is the coach and we respect him 100%.

“There’s a lot of contributing factors to certain things that went on around the team. No-one likes a guy disturbing their preparation and that’s what I felt I did, especially with the Champions Trophy. All that stuff came out before that game against New Zealand, I didn’t play and then it was about me and not about the team’s focus and that was the most disappointing thing I felt came out of that.”

In an attempt to keep Warner out of trouble, Lehmann has actually ordered the senior players within the team, including captain Michael Clarke and vice-captain Brad Haddin, to watch over Warner at all times.

“Darren’s just said to go out there and score runs and be myself,” Warner said. “Just get that X-factor back that I can have for this team so hopefully I can score some runs. Definitely still enjoy myself off the field. There’s no bans, there’s no curfews, no nothing. The mistakes, I’ve learned, I’ve become more mature, off the field as well. I know if I stuff up again I’m on the first plane home. No-one needs to tell you that because you already know it.”