{"id":654714,"date":"2026-05-07T03:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/654714\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:59:12","slug":"cricket-superstar-made-a-mistake-when-drink-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/654714\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket superstar ‘made a mistake’ when drink driving"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the country’s greatest batsmen was both foolish and reckless when he drove after sharing a few glasses of wine with friends on Easter Sunday, his lawyer says.<\/p>\n

David Warner returned a positive result for alcohol after he stopped short of a roadside test in Sydney’s east on April 5, police said.<\/p>\n

When he was taken to Maroubra Police Station for a secondary test, the 39-year-old allegedly blew 0.104 – more than double the legal blood alcohol limit.<\/p>\n

The former Australian Test opener and current Sydney Thunder Big Bash captain was charged with mid-range drink driving.<\/p>\n

He was not required to appear in Waverley Local Court on Thursday when his matter was first mentioned and quickly adjourned.<\/p>\n

Warner has not yet entered a plea but his lawyer Bobby Hill foreshadowed a guilty plea at a later date when speaking outside court.<\/p>\n

“He knows what he did was wrong,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He accepts that was a reckless decision, a foolish decision to get in his car instead of taking an Uber.”<\/p>\n

The Fox Cricket commentator had enjoyed three glasses of wine at a friend’s apartment before making that decision, Mr Hill said.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a crime to have a glass of wine on the day of the lord’s resurrection. In fact, some would consider that completely appropriate,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

“His crime is, as I said, choosing a foolish plan A instead of a plan B.”<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

The drink driving charge has cast doubt on David Warner’s captaincy of the Thunder. (Bianca De Marchi\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Mr Hill said Warner’s last drink had been 11 minutes before he was pulled over by police, who are accused of taking 52 minutes to administer the second breathalyser.<\/p>\n

The cricket star is remorseful, which is why he will ask for leniency but expect to be punished as any other NSW citizen would be, Mr Hill explained.<\/p>\n

“This case before the court is a reminder to everyone in the public about the dangers of self-assessments,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I know David is looking forward to putting this matter behind him and focusing his efforts on recontributing to those people in the community”.<\/p>\n

The charge has cast doubt on his Thunder captaincy.<\/p>\n

“The allegations are of course concerning and we take them very seriously”, Cricket NSW chief executive Lee Germon said after his arrest.<\/p>\n

“At Cricket NSW, we are strong advocates for safe driving, not drink-driving.”<\/p>\n

Warne was arrested while he was on an Easter trip home from the subcontinent, where he captained the Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Warner retired from Test cricket in 2024 as one of Australia’s greatest batsmen (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

He returned to Pakistan after being charged to resume the T20 tournament, where he averaged an impressive 51.2 with the bat.<\/p>\n

Warner was a swashbuckling opening batsman and aggressive run-scorer for the national side until his retirement from Test cricket in 2024.<\/p>\n

He scored 8786 runs at an average of more than 44 across his 112 Tests, with a career high score of 335 not out against Pakistan.<\/p>\n

But Warner created headlines for the wrong reasons when he was one of three Australian players suspended after a 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa that shook the cricketing world.<\/p>\n

A Cricket Australia investigation found Warner, who was vice-captain at the time, masterminded a plan to alter the condition of the match ball with sandpaper and enlisted rookie batsman Cameron Bancroft to carry it out.<\/p>\n

Warner was banned from international and domestic cricket for 12 months and made permanently ineligible for team leadership positions.<\/p>\n

Warner’s matter will return to court on June 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the country’s greatest batsmen was both foolish and reckless when he drove after sharing a few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,14349,740,18754,34155,316651,12548,316652,85,1211],"class_list":["post-654714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bobby-hill","tag-cricket","tag-david-warner","tag-drink-driving","tag-foolish-decision","tag-fox-cricket","tag-mr-hill","tag-sports","tag-test-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}