Why Thunder made the “no-brainer” decision to appoint Warner as captain

Sydney Thunder GM Trent Copeland was thrilled to announce David Warner as the franchise’s captain for BBL|14.

Warner became available to captain the club last month after his lifetime leadership ban dating back to Sandpapergate was lifted by Cricket Australia, and the Thunder moved quickly to announce the left-hander as skipper, taking over from off-spinner Chris Green.

Copeland says part of the reason to name the Australian great as skipper was because he wanted the 38-year-old’s leadership and experience to help guide the franchise’s young stars.

“It was still a very big decision and largely that comes off the back of the great body of work that Chris Green has done as the captain of the Thunder,” Copeland told SEN Afternoons.

“But this was sort of a concerted effort when I took over as GM that I wanted a leadership group of people around the likes of Ollie Davies, Tanveer Sanger, Sam Konstas and numerous others to be accelerated in their growth while still being focused on lifting the trophy.

“It is about young players and Davey being available for the full tournament for the first time in his career (was the right call as captain).”

As well as helping those younger players with international aspirations in their development, Copeland says it was a no-brainer to hand the reigns to Warner given that he’s learned plenty of lessons across his more than a decade-long international career.

“I think it’s the competitive nature that he has just as part of his persona,” Copeland said.

“The one thing that sticks out to me is he's learnt from mistakes both on the field and off. In Dave's case, it arms him with a really good perspective on what's most important right now in any given moment, whether it's tactically, as a player or as a person.

“Then in some players’ development who are trying to progress, win tournaments and then play in international cricket, that's sort of the crux of all of it.

“With Davey, this opportunity would have come earlier had he been available to it.

“So, from my point of view, it was a no-brainer with the greatest of respect to those that were in the mix for it as well.”

Copeland also expects Warner to remain captain as long as he remains with the club, and that will likely see him lead the franchise in BBL|15 as well given he inked a two-year contract ahead of this summer.

“At the moment, he's been appointed the captain of the Thunder indefinitely until something changes,” Copeland said.

“Given that he's available for the full tournament, it strikes me as an opportunity that until he decides to hang them up or he is unavailable for us, that'll be the case.”

Warner’s Sydney Thunder begin their BBL|14 season against the Adelaide Strikers on December 17 at Canberra’s Manuka Oval.