Warner brothers: A tale of two sons
Peter Roebuck in the Age looks at Australia's new Twenty20 hero David Warner and finds that, pleasingly for headline-writers, he has a brother who also plays
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Peter Roebuck in the Age looks at Australia's new Twenty20 hero David Warner and finds that, pleasingly for headline-writers, he has a brother who also plays. He also considers that Warner's situation could not have happened in another era.
As has long been their custom, Howard and Lorraine Warner spent Saturday afternoon running the canteen at Eastern Suburbs cricket ground in Sydney. A no-mucking-around couple, they live in working-class Mattraville and turn up at weekends to support their club and, perchance, to watch their sons play.
Both boys worked their way through the ranks like everyone else. Steve, their eldest, is a hard-hitting and hard-living batsman at present stationed in the second team. David, their youngest, plays first grade and one day hopes to make his Sheffield Shield debut.
Oh, and he's opening the batting for his country and is poised to make his fortune in the Indian Premier League. David Warner is both a product of the system and the times. His sudden rise shows that the system works and the pressures upon it. In any other era he'd still be obscure, another rookie playing for his state's reserve team hoping for promotion.
In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Hanlon considers Australia's fresh-looking Twenty20 side.
Thirteen days ago, Australia lost a Test match at the MCG and with it a home series for the first time in 16 years. There followed much talk of new brooms and sweeping change. Last night the nation's elite cricketers returned to the game's oldest stage, and only captain Ricky Ponting and batsman Mike Hussey remained. That must have been one hell of a big broom.
And here's a great bit of crystal-ball gazing from the Tasmania fast bowler Brett Geeves. In his blog three days before the Twenty20 squad was picked, Geeves predicted Warner would be chosen and destroy the South Africans.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here