Australian Test cricketer David Warner has copped a 5750-dollar fine from Cricket Australia for his Twitter rant controversy.
Warner had pleaded guilty to unbecoming behaviour after his expletive-laden criticism of senior News Ltd cricket writers Robert Craddock and Malcolm Conn for an article by Craddock exposing the sleazy nightlife and alleged corruption within the Indian Premier League (IPL), News.com.au reports.
According to the report, Warner was further incensed by a picture of himself playing for the Delhi Daredevils, along with a image of spot-fixing accused Indian Test cricketer S.Sreesanth, which was illustrated in print.
Warner, who was fined the maximum allowed by rule six of Cricket Australia's code of behaviour for a first offence, said that he wanted to draw a line under his Twitter rant controversy and move forward, although he added that to have his image related to an article on match-fixing is the worst thing that can possibly be brought to a cricket player.
However, the hard-hitting batsman expressed remorse over the incident, saying that he did not handle the incident properly, adding that Australian cricketers are a sort of a family with journalists for which any disagreement should be kept within and not let out in the public, as he had done.
Apologising for the language he had used and for offending the journalists, Warner said that if he had went about the incident the right way and had called Craddock, it would not have blown up so much, although he added that he had made peace with Conn and that the pair were keen to move on.
According to Warner, there had been a range of feedback from fellow cricketers from comical to disgraceful, adding that as a professional athlete, he should have been aware of what is appropriate and what is not on Twitter.
Taking full blame for the incident, Warner said that he is focused now on the England tour ahead for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy and want to concentrate on scoring runs.
