Warner makes low-key exit from international cricket after Afghans beat Bangladesh in T20 WC
Kingstown, Jun 25: Australia batting great David Warner's 15-year-long international career, dotted with glorious achievements and controversies in equal measure, has come to an anti-climactic end after Afghanistan beat Bangladesh, eliminating the former champions from the T20 World Cup at the Super Eight phase.
Australia, the 2021 champions, finished at third place in the Super 8s Group 1 table with just two points -- from the win against Bangladesh. They had suffered a shocking loss to Afghanistan and a humbling defeat to India.
The 37-year-old Warner, who made his international debut in January 2009 in a T20I match, thus made a low-key exit from international cricket with Australia's 24-run loss to India on June 24 at Gros Islet being his last match.
There was no guard of honour or standing ovation, befitting one of Australia's all-time great batters. He made six runs off six balls in the match, edging Arshdeep Singh as Suryakumar Yadav took a low catch. He walked off the pitch with his head down, not knowing whether that was his last game.
Warner's retirement has been gradual. He played his final ODI match in the World Cup final win over India in November 2023 and his last Test against Pakistan in January. He has long signalled that this T20 World Cup would be his final tournament.
He retires as Australia's highest scorer and seventh-most prolific batter in the world in T20 format with 3,277 runs from 110 matches, at an average of 33.43 and strike rate of 142.47. He scored one hundred and 28 fifties in the shortest format.
From 112 Tests, he has scored 8,786 runs at an average of 44.59 with 26 hundreds and 37 fifties between 2011 and 2024.
He also scored 6,932 runs from 161 ODI matches at an average of 45.30 with the help of 22 centuries and 33 half centuries.
Warner, who has 49 centuries across formats and close to 19,000 runs in international cricket, had acknowledged that his name will forever be linked to the sandpaper gate scandal that took place at Newlands, Cape Town during a Test match against South Africa in 2018.
Warner's involvement in the scandal in the Newlands Test, when Cameron Bancroft used sandpaper to scuff the ball earned him a one-year ban, the same punishment as that of the-then skipper Steven Smith.
Warner was also banned for life from taking any leadership role in the Australian cricket setup.
"I think it's going to be inevitable that when people talk about me in 20 or 30 years' time, there will always be that sandpaper scandal," he said last week at North Sound ahead of Australia's Super 8 clash against Bangladesh.
"But for me, if they're real cricket tragics and they love cricket, (as well as) my closest supporters, they will always see me as that cricketer - someone who tried to change the game.
"Someone who tried to follow in the footsteps of the openers before me and try and score runs at a great tempo and change Test cricket in a way."
Warner was also a part of the IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad from 2014 till 2021, and led the franchise to its only title in 2016.
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Narayana Guru's philosophy counters majoritarianism amid social divisions, says Siddaramaiah
Varkala (Kerala) (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said saint and social reformer Sree Narayana Guru's philosophy remains a powerful answer to rising majoritarianism and social divisions in an India that boasts of economic progress even as unity weakens.
Speaking at the 93rd Sivagiri Pilgrim Conclave at Sivagiri Math, founded by Guru here, Siddaramaiah, the chief guest at the function, lamented that today's India faces a paradox where "we boast of economic growth, digital expansion and global influence, and yet social solidarity is weakening, and hatred is being normalised".
He said caste has not disappeared, but it has just changed its grammar.
Noting that communalism no longer speaks openly of hierarchy, it speaks the language of identity, fear, and majoritarian pride, Siddaramaiah said Guru foresaw this danger.
"He understood that when religion is separated from compassion and ethics, it becomes a tool of domination," Siddaramaiah said.
"Guru's philosophy directly counters religious majoritarianism, cultural nationalism without equality and identity politics without justice. His message reminds us that nation-building without social justice is merely state-building, not democracy," he said.
The Karnataka chief minister said it was no coincidence that after meeting Guru, Mahatma Gandhi sharpened his stance against untouchability, took a stand in favour of a simple life, and refused to attend weddings if they were not inter-caste.
He said that Rabindranath Tagore's idea of the "universal man" was inspired by the works of Guru.
He also shaped the ethical universe of Tagore, who acknowledged that dividing human beings in the name of religion is the greatest injustice, the CM said.
"Thus, Guru stands at the ideological crossroads of modern India by bridging spirituality, rationalism, humanism and social justice," Siddaramaiah said. The conclave was inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
According to Siddramaiah, Guru's influence was not confined to Kerala.
"His historic dialogue with Mahatma Gandhi in 1925 altered the intellectual course of the freedom movement. It made Gandhiji confront a fundamental truth that “Caste is not cultural diversity, it is institutionalised injustice," he said.
Using the mango tree analogy, Guru revealed that though leaves differ, their essence is the same, making Mahatma Gandhi realise that caste and religion, not diversity, are the world's deepest social problems, the Karnataka CM said. Siddaramaiah also spoke about Guru's impact on Karnataka.
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"Though geographically rooted in Kerala, Guru's influence crossed linguistic and state boundaries, shaping reform movements along the Karnataka coast, especially in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, and parts of Malnad," he said.
He said the Billava, Elava, Ediga, Mogaveera, and other backward communities of coastal Karnataka drew inspiration from Guru's call for dignity, education, and organisation.
"His message strengthened anti-caste assertion and self-respect movements in the region. This is one of the main reasons for strong resistance to attempts by communal forces to divide the people in the region," he said.
The chief minister said Basavanna's Kayaka (dignified labour) finds a direct echo in Narayana Guru's insistence on economic self-reliance alongside spiritual growth.
"Basavanna democratised devotion through Vachanas, Narayana Guru democratized divinity itself, asserting that human beings' exclusions are not graded by birth, but equal by existence. Both transformed religion from a tool of exclusion into a language of social justice," he said.
Siddaramaiah opined that the Sivagiri Pilgrimage cannot remain a yearly ritual.
"It must become a continuous social movement," the chief minister said and called upon religious leaders to speak against hatred, scholars to take Guru's philosophy into classrooms, youth to challenge injustice, not inherit silence and political institutions to align governance with ethical values," he said.
Concluding his address, Siddaramaiah called for an India rooted in dignity, dialogue and equal humanity, saying this was the democratic vision shared by Narayana Guru, Mahatma Gandhi and the Sivagiri movement.
