Mitchell Johnson’s scathing personal criticism of former teammate David Warner has prompted Cricket Australia to take decisive action. As a result, Johnson has been removed from two speaking engagements by Cricket Australia. These appearances were scheduled to take place at Optus Stadium in Perth during Australia’s first Test against Pakistan. Cricket Australia made the decision to cancel these appearances due to Johnson’s excessive criticisms of Warner in his explosive column for The West Australian. A spokesperson for Cricket Australia stated that while Johnson is a celebrated bowler, it was in everyone’s best interests that he did not serve as the guest speaker at the CA functions. Former Australian cricketer Mike Hussey replaced Johnson as the guest speaker at the lunch events. Despite the controversy surrounding his newspaper column, Johnson’s role on Triple M remained unaffected. He was initially left off the broadcaster’s list of commentators for the summer of cricket but was later reinstated. While Johnson has stood by his criticisms of Warner, he expressed regret for mentioning the sandpaper scandal in his column. He acknowledged that it was unnecessary and distasteful.
