The internal divisions within the Australian team were laid bare again this morning when an abusive message on twitter from David Warner’s brother described Shane Watson as a selfish pretender.
A tweet from Steven Warner’s @warnedog79 account on Friday, the day of Australia’s humiliating batting collapse in the second Test, said: “F***ing selfish Watson sooner your out of the side you great pretender the better.”later, a tweet from the account was addressed to @CricketAus: “I hope u have a business class seat booked from SA to london because its about time u had a batsman there who will have a go.”
David Warner was sent to Zimbabwe to gain match practice with Australia A after his suspension for punching England batsman Joe Root in a nightclub.Before the account was deleted, Steven Warner claimed he was not responsible for the abusive tweet and said he “wouldn’t have a clue” who was. “I didn’t tweet it,” he told Fairfax Media.
Warner’s brother also tweeted last week his support of Mickey Arthur, after official court documents from the former coach’s claim for compensation were leaked describing Watson as a “cancer” within the team.“Good on Mickey Arthur finally letting the truth be known and proving he was just an escape [sic] goat #awesomebloke #gentleman.”
As Australia collapsed in the first innings at lord’s, Warner’s brother, tweeting from the account @warnerdog79, wrote: “OK @CricketAus I hope u have a business class seat booked SA to london because its about time u had a batsman there who will have a go.”