David Warner and Michael Slater are long-time friends but a report emerged that the two had a disagreement in a Maldives Resort, which got heated and later went out of control.
With the Australian cricket contingent currently in the Maldives following their departure from India after the suspension of the Indian Premier League 2021, reports had emerged on Saturday that the duo of David Warner and Michael Slater had been involved in a physical exchange at a bar in the Maldives.
David Warner And Michael Slater Claims The Brawl At A Maldives Bar Is False
Australian media house The Daily Telegraph had reported that the duo had been engaged in a brawl inside the Taj Coral Resort in the Maldives where the pair are staying. However, both David Warner and Michael Slater have addressed the rumours, saying there is no truth to it and that the two continue to be really close friends.
“There is absolutely nothing to the rumour mill Buzz. Davie and I are great mates and absolutely zero chance of (having) a fight,” Slater reportedly texted a senior journalist of the publication.
David Warner, who is part of the 40-member Australian contingent to have flown to the Maldives on a chartered flight organized by the BCCI, denied the reports straightaway, saying that there is absolutely no substance to the rumours which emerged.
“There has been no drama. I don’t know where you get these things from. Unless you were here and have got concrete evidence you can’t write anything. Nothing happened,” read Warner’s text as per The Daily Telegraph.
David Warner was recently snubbed as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, a team he had led to an IPL title in 2016 and for which he had thrice won the Purple Cap.
David Warner Was Replaced By Kane Williamson And Didn’t Feature In The Last Game Before IPL 2021 Was Suspended Indefinitely
Following a poor run in IPL 2021 which saw SRH slip to the bottom of the points table with just one win from seven matches, David Warner was replaced by New Zealand captain Kane Williamson as the new leader of the team. Surprisingly, he did not even feature in the Playing XI of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s last game of the season before the tournament was suspended indefinitely.
Former Australian batsman Michael Slater on the other hand was part of the IPL’s commentary panel and had recently addressed Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison for imposing a travel ban from India and not allowing citizens to enter the country before May 15, when the border restriction ends.
With 5447 runs averaging 42.22, David Warner is fifth on the list of the leading run-getters in the IPL but first overall in terms of overseas players. With 50 half-centuries, he has the maximum fifties in the IPL history and he is the only player to have won the Orange Cap a record three times – in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
One of the most destructive openers across formats, David Warner was the second-highest run-scorer for SRH in their title-winning effort in 2016 with a monumental 848 runs at a strike rate of 151.42. He had a good IPL season in 2017 as well and returned back strong in 2019 scoring 692 runs in 12 matches. As a captain in the 2020 IPL edition, he took Sunrisers Hyderabad to No.3 on the points table.