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England players use David Warner’s name to spike book sales: Tim Paine
Tim Paine’s comments about David Warner came after Ben Stokes recently said that he was spurred on by Warner during the third Ashes Test at Headingley earlier this year.
Australia Test skipper Tim Paine believes that England cricketers are using David Warner’s name in order to spike their book sales. Paine’s comments came after Ben Stokes recently said that he was spurred on by Warner during the third Ashes Test at Headingley earlier this year. Stokes struck a magnificent 135 to help the hosts clinch victory from the jaws of defeat and level the series 1-1. In his new book titled ‘On Fire’, Stokes revealed that Warner kept sledging him while he was trying to save the match for England and that really motivated him to win the match.
“I was obviously standing next to David the whole time and you are allowed to talk on the cricket field. But by no means was he abusing him or sledging him. It just seems to be a common trend in England that they like to use Davey’s name to spike book sales. So good luck to them,” ESPN Cricinfo quoted Paine as saying.
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Warner, who was handed a ban over his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in the match against South Africa in 2018, made his Test return during this year’s Ashes series and he had to face a lot of sledging from the English fans. Paine talked about the situation and said that Warner handed it quite well.
“I was standing right next to him, I had absolutely no issue. The way David handled himself during the Ashes was excellent. Particularly given the fact he wasn’t scoring a hell of a lot of runs and I’m pretty sure he was on the end of a fair bit himself on and off the field in England,” Paine said.
“So I thought he did a great job of handling that and held himself really well throughout the series. They write books to sell and they have to get headlines to get sales,” he added.
Earlier, Stokes said that during the Ashes series, he felt that Warner was trying to shed the tag of good guy as he hadn’t been able to score runs in the series. Stokes also suggested it could have been a ploy by Warner to get the best out of himself as the ‘nice-guy act’ wasn’t working well for him.
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“Although he’d enjoyed a prolific World Cup campaign, he had struggled with the bat at the start of the Ashes and was perhaps turning to his old ways to try to get the best out of himself. The nice-guy act had done nothing for his runs column.
“I muttered ‘Bloody Warner’ a few times as I was getting changed. The more time passed, the more it spurred me on. All kinds of ideas of what I might say to him at the end of the game went through my head. In the end, I vowed to do nothing other than shake his hand and say ‘Well done’ if I could manufacture the situation.
“You always shake the hands of every member of the opposing team at the end of a match. But this one would give me the greatest sense of satisfaction,” he added.
(With ANI inputs)
