Cricket Australia (CA) is reportedly seeking professional advice on controversial opener David Warner's relationship with alcohol, following his punching England batsman Joe Root under the influence of alcohol after Australia's loss to England in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy.
According to News.com.au, despite Warner's four-week ban and a 11,500 dollar-fine for punching Root in a Birmingham bar last Sunday, CA is still unconvinced by the left-hander's claims that he does not have a drinking problem.
After strongly condemning the behaviour of Warner and five other Australian players who were drinking with him at the time of the incident, CA chief executive James Sutherland had made it clear that the board would be taking expert advice to resolve the problem within the team.
According to Sutherland, such steps are necessary to ensure that the board, with the help of its various professionals, makes additional judgments on Warner's possible drinking problem to provide whatever support is necessary, adding that Warner is making ordinary decisions and getting himself into trouble.
However, the report said that the CA needed to take a more stronger stand over Warner's problem, instead of just letting him off with a fine and a suspension, adding that the response from Australian cricket to Warner's bad behaviour proves that the sport is culturally cancerous and facing failure in England.
According to the report, although Warner had denied drinking as a part of his fitness campaign for this England tour during the later part of the Indian Premier League, sources in the IPL have claimed that Warner's denials were false, adding that it is also suspected that Warner had been drinking during his expletive-laden Twitter rant.
There are fears that Warner is heading down the same path as Andrew Symonds, who was suspended for two one-day matches after being drunk on the morning of a match against Bangladesh in Cardiff, with some CA officials now regretting that Symonds was not taught a stern lesson at the time by being sent home.
By contrast, the report said that former captain Ricky Ponting turned his cricketing life around to become Australia's most successful Test and one-day captain after some worrying nightclub incidents early in his career, after which he bravely fronted a press conference with a black eye and admitted that he had a drinking problem.