Not prepared to let his family be the "washing machine for cricket's dirty laundry", an angry David Warner on Wednesday withdrew his application for revocation of lifetime leadership ban, saying the independent review panel wanted him to go through "public lynching".
Warner was handed a lifetime leadership ban for his role in ball tampering scandal in the Cape Town Test in 2018. He had filed a review application after Cricket Australia altered its code of conduct last month, hoping it will clear his path to be considered for captaincy once again.
However, the 36-year-old has now given up on his captaincy ambitions and slammed Cricket Australia panel for making "offensive" comments and questioned the entire process.
Announcing his decision to withdraw the appeal, Warner took to Instagram and wrote: “My family is more important to me than cricket.”
“Over the course of the past nearly five years since the events that occurred during the Third Test in Cape Town, even with all the humiliation and attacks that they have had to endure, I have enjoyed the unwavering support and love of my wife Candice and my three daughters, Ivy Mae, Indi Rae, and Isla Rose. They are my world.
“Since that Test and even though my ban from leadership roles may never be lifted, I have taken it upon myself to reform, to rehabilitate and to transform my approach to the game.
“I have served and been subject to a crushing, unprecedented, penalty that has horribly impacted me and my family for the past nearly five years — without the prospect of any relief until now.
“I held the hope and was encouraged that I would be given a proper opportunity to demonstrate to the review panel that I have demonstrated ?my deep regret and remorse, and that my rehabilitation and transformation are profound.
“I hoped I would be given the opportunity, under the established practice and procedure of the code of conduct that is reflected in the amendments, to demonstrate that I have satisfied the necessary requirements for a modification to my ban and that I might be permitted to see out the balance of my career without the yoke hanging around my neck and further anguish for my family."
