Why cricket teammates turned bitter enemies David Warner and Mitchell Johnson are on a collision course

They were once cricket teammates for Australia – but now bitter enemies David Warner and Mitchell Johnson are set for an awkward reunion in Perth during the first Test against India next month.

Despite not being listed by Triple M this week as part of their team of broadcasters, the former paceman – who snared 313 Test wickets in his career – is tipped to be calling the live action in his home state.

Johnson will more than likely cross paths with Warner, who has signed on as a commentator for Fox Cricket as he juggles his Big Bash commitments with the Sydney Thunder this summer. 

The pair will avoid one another when Pakistan are in Perth on November 10 for an ODI clash against Australia, as Johnson has a prior engagement.

Their falling-out – which can be traced back a few years – reignited in December last year when Johnson insisted Warner didn’t ‘warrant a heroic sending off’ against Pakistan as his Test career drew to a close.

Earlier last year, the former fast bowler also called for Warner to be dropped from Australia’s Ashes tour, prompting a war of words with Candice Warner.

She hit back at Johnson saying his opinions were irrelevant and ‘don’t have a lot of merit’.

Warner – who recently stated he would be ‘open’ to a return to the Test XI if needed – responded in emphatic fashion with a century against Pakistan in Perth last December.

Johnson – who works for Triple M – will more than likely cross paths with Warner, who has signed on as a commentator for Fox Cricket

His wild celebrating after reaching three figures was believed to be directed mainly at Johnson.

‘You [media] saw what it was. It was a nice little quiet shush,’ Warner said at the time.

‘It’s just anyone who wants to write stories about me and trying to use headlines, get headlines, that stuff doesn’t bother me. 

‘I go out there and do what I have to do. And I’m allowed to celebrate how I want.’

Johnson later expressed his regret about his stoush with Warner when it came to bringing up the sandpaper scandal from Cape Town in 2018 in one of his newspaper columns.

Warner and then captain Steve Smith (both 12 months) plus Cameron Bancroft (nine months) were later banned by Cricket Australia – and it could be argued the sporting public still haven’t forgiven the polarising star.

‘There is one thing I wasn’t that happy with,’ Johnson said during an episode of his podcast, The Mitchell Johnson Cricket Show.

‘I was reading an 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 [Warner] to get a farewell and to be in that position that he was….after what they did back then, that didn’t sit right with me. That’s why I brought it up.’