David Warner will face a disciplinary hearing on Thursday evening Australian time over his altercation with England batsman Joe Root at a Birmingham pub. Warner was stood down from the team for Australia's washed out Champions Trophy match against New Zealand on Wednesday and will learn at the Code of Behaviour hearing whether he faces any further sanction over the incident, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The hearing will take place via teleconference at 6.30pm AEST (9.30am in the UK) and it will be the second time in less than a month that a case involving Warner will be heard by Cricket Australia's senior Code of Behaviour commissioner, Gordon Lewis. Warner was fined A$5750 in May after he pleaded guilty to unbecoming behaviour, concerning his foul-mouthed Twitter rant at two Australian journalists.
This time, Warner has again been reported for "unbecoming behaviour", relating to a punch he allegedly threw at Root while members of the England and Australia teams were at a Birmingham pub following their game on Saturday.
There have been reports that the altercation was instigated by Warner's belief that Root was impersonating Hashim Amla when wearing a false beard, but the England camp has said Root was making fun of himself and referring to taunts from his team-mates that he was too young to grow facial hair.
George Bailey, the acting captain of Australia in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke, said after the New Zealand match that the Warner-Root altercation was "a very minor incident" which had "been dealt with in-house".
There have also been reports that Warner was a regular at the Walkabout pub, where the incident occurred, during the team's time in Birmingham. "Our bar staff are quite familiar with David's face," John Creighton, the manager of the pub, said.
