David Warner on growing up in a rough neighbourhood in Australia: 'You probably wouldn't walk the streets at night'

The Delhi Capitals talisman opened up on a lot of facets of his life on the recent episode of Breakfast with Champions

David Warner on his early years in Australia

Australian batter David Warner, among many other things, is renowned for his doggedness. The 36-year-old southpaw is the first Australian ever to be picked for the national side without any prior first-class cricket experience and his very first international outing, a T20 game in 2009 against South Africa, is etched permanently in the minds of cricket aficionados for its sheer audacity. Warner smashed 89 off just 43 deliveries and the innings saw him tonk the ball over the boundary half a dozen times, leaving the likes of Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn completely dumbfounded.

David Warner would then make similar waves in Test cricket as well and it wasn't long before he emerged as the best batter of his generation, with his scruffy, confrontational nature being the main highlight of his personality. Sure, controversies followed him as expected and there were quite a few self-inflicted setbacks, too, encountered along the way (the highly infamous sandpaper gate being an example) but one can always trust the Delhi Capitals talisman to be the most resolute when it comes to wading through troubles.

And guess where he gets this tenacity from? Turns out, it was the tricky neighbourhood that he grew up in that prepped him to fend for himself from a really young age. Speaking to popular sports broadcaster Gaurav Kapur on Breakfast with Champions about the vibrancy of his growing-up years, Warner said,

"We (his family) lived in a townhouse community of about 40 townhouses. But inside those houses there were criminals doing drug-dealing and all that kind of stuff - it was government housing. And then, when you walk in the streets back then, you probably wouldn't walk at night. So, when I like - was it 14 years, 9 months, you could get a job - I worked at 'Woolworths', packing shelves at night. Then walk I home - but not that I'd ever use it but you always had a pocket knife to open the cardboard. I knew if something happened, I had that in my pocket. But I was always taking the right route home. So, I knew where to go. If you walked down the middle of the street and it's all lit up, no one's gonna come near you. You had to be street smart so, we learned that from a young age.

You become a good judge of character. You can work people out pretty much straight away. You can drop me anywhere and I'll probably be able to go, "right, this is rough"."

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In the same vein, Warner also dished out some Jason Bourne-like advice for survival and should you be ever expecting trouble at a restaurant, he's got some solid suggestions to pass on!

In the same episode of the hit YouTube show, David Warner would talk about his rise in prominence as a TikTok star, the many pranks that he pulled on his Aussie mates (and the ones that he fell prey to) and also his dream movie cast that not only includes himself but also Telugu superstars Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna! Well, should he decide to hang up his gloves sooner or later, the Telugu Film Industry can certainly become his next employer!

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