Leon Wobschall: Punishment fails to fit the crime with Warner allowed to walk on

We were treated to the sight of the chided Australian in contrite mode at a press conference with his captain on Thursday.

Speaking through severely gritted teeth he uttered his ‘sorrow’ for punching our own Joe Root in a Birmingham bar in the early hours of the Sunday before last.

Because he uttered the word sorry eight times, I guess it’s all right then. We can all rest easy. ‘I’m sorry, really I am sorry. Sorry...Listen I’m so sorry. I AM SORRY, RIGHT....’

Well, not really. Call me old-fashioned, but shouldn’t the Aussies have swiftly dealt with the matter in house and handed Warner his cards before putting him on the first available flight back to Sydney? Man-handled him on, if need be. And saved us all from Walkaboutgate.

Let’s be frank, Warner was as guilty as a puppy standing next to a heap of his own making.

But hit an opposing player in unprovoked fashion and do not expect to be handed the only punishment that can hurt you, seems to be the message. Instead, here’s an $11,500 fine (around £7,000) and we’ll see you in the nets before the first Test in Nottingham once you’ve done your time.

So Warner walks on. Despite Cricket Australia’s ‘extremely disappointed’ chief executive James Sutherland labelling his actions as a “despicable act that is not acceptable in any place in society”.

Clearly not unacceptable enough for him to lose his tour place, though, Jim. Perish the thought.

For a barometer of the public reaction back in Australia on the issue, I logged onto Sydney Morning Herald’s website. In the cricket section was a simple question: Should David Warner be sent home from the tour of England?

When penning these thoughts, 77 per cent said ‘yes’.

You suspect a stronger captain than Michael Clarke would have confronted the issue at source and finished it by handing Warner his passport and saying ‘on your bike’.

Instead Ashes cricket – the high-point of our sporting summer – is already in danger of becoming a sideshow to ‘Warner Watch’. Maybe he will be screened on BBC2 amid hushed tones from Bill Oddie and Chris Packham, Never mind ‘Summerwatch’.

I for one would have had more than a small wager on Steve Waugh, in his days leading the Baggy Green, doing exactly that and sending Warner packing. Never mind that he could have afforded to, given the playing riches at his disposal in his once-in-a-lifetime side.

But that is not the point. As one of the game’s traditionalists, he would have made sure the decent thing was done to prevent Australian cricket, a venerable institution, being dragged further through the mud.

Let’s face it, if recent evidence is anything to go by, it has become caked in it.

It is not as if Warner does not have form in the notoriety stakes.

He incurred a fine earlier this year following a foul-mouthed and belligerent Twitter rant at two respected Aussie cricket writers who had the temerity to criticise the Indian Premier League. He fancies himself, clearly.

After the whole sorry episode in Brum, expect the tabloid press in both London, Sydney and Melbourne to have an absolute field day at the expense of a series which is already in grave danger of being dumbed down.

England are taking the moral high-ground following the indiscretions of Warner.

Striking out at a Pom in a bar is clearly different to the likes of ‘Lord’ Gower and John Morris getting in hot water for hiring a Tiger Moth to fly around Queensland during a tour match on the 1986-87 Ashes tour. Talk about maintaining national stereotypes.

It might just be me, but quite what the English team were doing in a manifestly Australian bar letting off steam hours after an international win under the noses of their rivals, I will never know.

I am sure there are plenty of other establishments in the second city which would have been glad of their trade on that fateful evening.

As night follows day, while our own ‘red-tops’ will continue to kick Warner and Clarke in the coming days, their Australian counterparts will start to turn things around.

Already, some reports are questioning who ‘dobbed in’ (English translation ‘spilled the beans’) Warner for his pugilistic actions.

There will, no doubt, be the habitual references back to Ian Botham’s famous ‘frank exchange of views’ with Ian Chappell in a Melbourne watering hole in 1976-77, with things spun by the media from both countries into a sporting ‘war’ between England and Australia. The latter are never more dangerous than when they are backed into a corner, allowing the Aussie ‘battler’ mentality to come to the fore.

That is something the delightful Shane Warne has already pretty much alluded to.

What nonsense. Most people in both countries just want to watch the cricket and may the best team win. If both sides can share a drink or two and chew the fat afterwards in sensible fashion and not behave like silly schoolboys, all the better.

It seems the iconic image of Andrew Flintoff offering consolation to Brett Lee at the end of that famous Edgbaston Test in 2005 is a world away – personifing playing hard with no quarter given, but respecting arguably the greatest sporting rivalry going.

You certainly suspect that the likes of Illingworth, Benaud, Waugh and company will not have been impressed by last week’s nonsense, that’s for sure.

and another thing...

REALLY, how can you treat Sky Sports News seriously?

Amid the hand-wringing after England’s lamentable Under-21 European Championship campaign and the re-run of the ‘national disgrace’ headlines which accompanied the senior team’s exit from Bloemfontein in the 2010 World Cup and, to a lesser extent, last year’s loss to Italy in the Ukraine, we had the flip side.

While the great and the good are busy pontificating about structural problems in English football, you have some anchor trying to get us excited about Stoke/Norwich/whoever signing some kid from Ecuador/Romania/Denmark.

In this case, Aston Villa, who are, to be fair, one of the better clubs when it comes to developing British talent.

We were informed that some exciting young Dane is heading to Villa Park, joy of joys. Credit to the lad, mind, he seemed a far more interesting interviewee than most young English players.

Pick up any national newspaper and glance at the transfer titbits column or scan through Teletext/Ceefax or whatever it is called now and the theme is depressing. Premier League clubs tracking, monitoring, in the hunt for countless overseas players. There’s the problem, m’lud.