Aaron Finch's unforeseen decision to retire from ODI cricket surprised cricket fans and it has given the country's cricket board - Cricket Australia - a little headache. With Finch walking away, the captaincy post has been vacated and Cricket Australia is yet to announce the new skipper for their 50-over team. While Test skipper Pat Cummins is the front-runner to replace Finch, Warner may also be in the reckoning, especially as several former and current players have called for the southpaw's life ban to end.
Cricket Australia imposed a lifelong leadership ban as a punishment on David Warner after the 2018 ball-tampering saga in South Australia. Along with Warner, former captain Steve Smith was stripped of captaincy and banned from leading the country for two years while Cameron Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension.
Having said that, the star Australian opening batter could be seen returning to captaincy duties as early as in the Big Bash League (BBL) in December after the country's cricket board called for a review of its code of conduct.
Under the current rules, players do not have the right to have a sanction reviewed once it has been accepted.
However, Warner's life ban on captaincy for his involvement in the infamous 2018 ball-tampering scandal may be commuted by Cricket Australia after the review, enabling the cricketer to lead Sydney Thunder in the BBL or Australia in the future.
"Cricket Australia's board met today and among the items discussed was a possible amendment to the code of conduct in respect to long-term sanctions," CA said in a statement on Friday.
For the penalty to be withdrawn, Warner has to plead his case before CA's code of conduct commissioner.
"The amendment would allow a person to request a penalty that they had accepted be reviewed after an appropriate period of time," the statement read.
"Currently the code states that once a charge and penalty is accepted, there is no avenue for review. The onus would be on the applicant to prove they had undergone genuine reform relevant to the offence they were sanctioned for.
"Any review would not revisit the original sanction, other than suspension of a penalty in recognition of genuine reform. The board has requested that the CA head of integrity propose an amendment to the code for consideration.
"It was agreed that should an amendment in respect to long-term sanctions be adopted, any review of a penalty would be heard by an independent code of conduct commission," it added.
CA was forced to consider Warner's captaincy ban following a request by Sydney Thunder through Cricket New South Wales.
Warner joined Sydney Thunder earlier this year for a lucrative 10-year deal.
(With PTI inputs)
