Ahead of David Warner’s retirement Test tour against Pakistan, former cricketer Mitchell Johnson penned down a strong article criticising the opener for having a hero’s send-off. The 42-year-old mentioned that the southpaw never really owned up to his mistake following the ball-tampering incident in South Africa in 2017 and hence, believes that the cricketer shouldn’t be treated as a hero.
However, chief selector George Bailey and opener Usman Khawaja supported Warner and criticised Johnson, which prompted the former pacer to clarify the situation. Speaking on his own podcast, Johnson stated that earlier in the year, he received a ‘pretty bad’ text from the 37-year-old after the prior wrote another article criticising Warner’s form and his wife Candice Warner’s public defence of her husband’s spot in the playing XI.
Johnson added that he made efforts to try and talk to Warner about it but there was no proper response from the other side. The Queensland-born cricketer then added that if someone doesn’t like his words or writing then he expects the person to come and speak to him, rather than attacking him in front of the media.
“I got a message from Dave, which was quite personal. I tried to ring to try and talk to him about it, which I've always been open to. I know I've been open to the guys when I finished playing. I said if I'm in the media and writing things or saying things that you don't like, just come and speak to me.
“It was never a personal thing then until this point. This is probably what drove me to write the article as well, part of it. It was definitely a factor. Some of the stuff that was said in that, I won't say it. I think that's up to Dave to say it if he wants to talk about it. There was some stuff in there that was extremely disappointing, what he said, and pretty bad to be honest,” Johnson said on his podcast.
Johnson disgusted with Bailey's comments
Meanwhile, Johnson also criticised Bailey’s ‘I hope he’s okay’ comment. He mentioned that it’s pretty disgusting for the former Australia skipper to talk about his mental health.
"To ask if I'm okay because I've had mental health issues is pretty much downplaying my article and putting it on mental health, which is quite disgusting, I think," Johnson said.
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