David Warner’s captaincy of the Sydney Thunder could be in doubt after the star opener pleaded guilty to drink-driving.<\/p>\n
The high-profile cricketer was not required to appear in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday, but his lawyer Bobby Hill said the batsman was admitting to the charge of mid-range drink driving on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n
“The parties are in discussion about the facts,” Hill said.<\/p>\n
Warner returned a positive result for alcohol after he stopped short of a roadside test in Sydney’s east on April 5.<\/p>\n
When taken to Maroubra Police Station for a secondary test, the 39-year-old blew 0.104 – more than double the legal blood alcohol limit.<\/p>\n
Hill previously foreshadowed a guilty plea when the matter was first mentioned in May.<\/p>\n
“He knows what he did was wrong,” he said at the time.<\/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, 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
Hill said Warner’s last drink had been 11 minutes before he was pulled over by police.<\/p>\n
The cricket star was remorseful and would ask for leniency, but he expected to be punished as any other citizen would be, the lawyer said.<\/p>\n
Warner’s sentence was set down for August 18.<\/p>\n
Warner’s admission of guilt has cast doubt over his status as captain of the Thunder, who were contacted for comment after the plea was entered.<\/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
The Thunder, along with the Sydney Sixers and NSW Blues, are part of a state government campaign to deter drink-driving.<\/p>\n
Warner 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
No stranger to the headlines, Warner 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
In 2013, Warner was also involved in a high-profile bust-up in Birmingham during which he punched future England captain Joe Root.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Stuart Nash quits amid sexism storm, and Prince George turns 13. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Warner’s captaincy of the Sydney Thunder could be in doubt after the star opener pleaded guilty to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,67,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-540407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}