Fresh off securing Cricket Australia's next round of TV broadcast rights, Fox Sports have locked in their next commentator - David Warner.
The Australian opener has come under plenty of fire throughout the course of this summer for his form, but emphatically knocked the doubters out of the park during the Boxing Day Test as he made a double hundred against South Africa.
His innings will likely secure his spot in the Australian Test side for at least the upcoming Tour of India, but also the Ashes, to be played this off-season.
Warner's future still hangs in the air though, with the ageing opener previously admitting that he may need to drop one format in an attempt to play for a longer period in the others - and with an ODI World Cup in 2023 and T20 World Cup in 2024, he has his eyes firmly fixed on those tournaments.
But his future after cricket is now sorted, with Fox Sports confirming that while he will appear sporadically during the rest of his playing career, he will be in the commentary booth full-time once he hangs the bat up.
The new TV rights deal, which will run until 2031, means Fox Sports are now planning for long-term cricket broadcasting, and Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany said that while it's not possible to replace late greatest Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds, Warner was the pick of the current players to take up the role.
โI think it's not possible to replace Shane (Warne) and Andrew (Symonds),โ Delany said.
โWe've thought long and hard about what we might do with the coverage. When you've got names like Gilchrist and Guha, Hussey, Border, Waugh, Mel Jones, it's a very, very big team.
โIf you had one shot though at a commentator of the current crop to replace those two, you'd probably have to say Dave Warner is the name.
โHe's a brawler, he's a fighter, he's exciting. From the moment he stepped out on the patch, I remember in the Big Bash in 2011 when he first came to real dominance, we're very glad that we've now signed him for now and the future.
โI think he'll be a very, very good cricket commentator.
โWe're using him at the moment, he sporadically comes on.
โWhen he chooses to retire, he'll come on with us.โ
Warner will likely appear for some games during the Big Bash League in January around his playing commitments for the Sydney Thunder before jetting out to India with the Australian side, with the first Test to be played on February 9.
