Mindgames passé,Aussies switch to physical disintegration

Team management have stood down Warner pending the outcome of the hearing,meaning he will miss Australias match against New Zealand in Birmingham tonight Wednesday.

CA said it would make no further comment until the hearing,the time and date for which had yet to be confirmed. The England player involved in the incident was young batsman Joe Root.

The England and Wales Cricket Board confirms that David Warner initiated an unprovoked physical attack on a member of the England team in a Birmingham bar following Englands 48-run victory over Australia, the ECB said in a statement. Warner has admitted behaving inappropriately and has since apologised to the player involved who has accepted the apology.

Following a full investigation the England team management has concluded that the England player was in no way responsible for nor retaliated to the attack.

No issue

England captain Alastair Cook said he had no issue with his players being out in a bar in the early hours. You dont often get to win international games and when the schedule allows you,as long as its within certain parameters which we set as a team8230;, Cook told a news conference ahead of Englands match against Sri Lanka on Thursday.

We didnt have training for a couple of days, he added. Clearly if it was a back-to-back game its a very different issue.

Its very important they do sometimes let their hair down because celebrating wins also builds team spirit.

Cook said Root had not suffered any injury. He seems fine, he said. No physical injury or anything like that. Hes trained very well and he just wants to get the matter buried.

Hes here to play cricket, Cook added. Hes an excellent young man and hes been excellent since hes come into the England cricket team.

The manager of the Walkabout bar where the incident took place said England and Australia players had been in the VIP area between 0130 and 0230 on Sunday.

None of the group seemed to have been drinking to excess and were just having a good time, John Creighton told Sky Sports.

There was a small altercation between Warner and Root. This was dealt with very amicably and quickly by the rest of the group and both were calmly chatting to each other immediately afterwards. They all left a short while later and a small bar tab was picked up by David Warner.

Creighton said Warner was a regular visitor to his bar. Our bar staff are quite familiar with Davids face and hes never caused us any problems, he said.

The 26-year-old Warner was fined A5,750 5,400 last month by CA for a Twitter outburst against two journalists.

Australia were already without regular captain Michael Clarke,who has not recovered from a back injury,for Wednesdays group match against their trans-Tasman rivals which they need to win to retain a chance of reaching the semi-finals. Australia play Sri Lanka in their final Group A game at The Oval in London on Monday.

Roots fake beard,supposedly an impersonation of Hashim Amla,incensed Warner: British newspaper

London: British newspaper The Daily Telegraph has reported that Joe Root was wearing a green and gold wig on his head,which he turned round into a beard,in the Walkabout bar on Broad Street in Birmingham.

Warner pulled the beard off before punching Root on the chin when he asked for it back, the report said. It added: Sources have indicated Warner thought Root was poking fun and imitating Amla8217;s beard,a suggestion denied by the ECB. Green and gold are Australia8217;s colours and the Walkabout bar is an Australian-themed pub on popular Broad Street in the city centre.

It also quoted a barman as saying that Warner had Jagerbombs and vodka before the incident.

According to reports,England players Stuart Broad,Steven Finn,Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes were present at the bar alongside Root while the Australian camp had Clint McKay,Glenn Maxwell,Phil Hughes,Matthew Wade,Mitchell Marsh and Warner. It is understood there had been no interaction between the two groups until the flare-up occurred, the paper reported.

Agencies