Mitchell Johnson sacked over David Warner column

Dec. 19 (news.com.au) - Mitchell Johnson’s scathing personal attack on former teammate David Warner has sparked one of his employers to take decisive action.

Mitchell Johnson’s scathing personal attack on former teammate David Warner resulted in him being stood down from two speaking functions by Cricket Australia.

News Corp reports the former left-arm quick for Australia had two guest speaking appearances scheduled for Optus Stadium in Perth as Australia took on Pakistan in the first Test of the summer starting on December 14.

The appearances were cancelled due to Cricket Australia’s view that Johnson, 42, had taken his criticisms of Warner, 37, too far in an explosive column for The West Australian in early December.

“Mitchell is one of Australia’s most celebrated bowlers, but we felt on this occasion it was in everyone’s best interests that he was not the guest speaker at the CA functions,’’ a CA spokesman told News Corp on Tuesday.

Aussie great Mike Hussey reportedly replaced Johnson as the guest speaker at the lunch events as Australia rolled Pakistan by 360 runs in the first Test.

Johnson’s role on Triple M was not impacted by the drama surrounding his newspaper column however, despite the fact he was initially left off the broadcaster’s list of commentators for the summer of cricket.

While Johnson has largely stood by his criticisms of Warner in the days since his newspaper column became the talk of the cricket world, he did express one regret while speaking on his podcast The Mitchell Johnson Cricket Show.

The 313-Test wicket great said he regretted bringing up the the sandpaper scandal but stood by his other points including that players shouldn’t get to dictate the terms of their retirement.

“There is one thing I wasn’t that happy with,” Johnson said.

“I didn’t notice it at the time. I was reading the article and just sort of went with it. The “Bunnings” and the “sandpaper” part of it. Probably distasteful. That was probably something that didn’t need to be said.

“The reason that (the sandpaper scandal) came up is that I just don’t look at statistics. I look at the whole picture. And I’m not trying to bring up those old things.

“But someone to get a farewell and to be in that position that he was and what they did back then, that didn’t quite sit right with me, that’s why I brought it up.’’