New SRH captain Kane Williamson backs former skipper David Warner

Wellington: Coming in support of the disgraced Aussie cricketer David Warner, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson said that the southpaw is not a bad guy.

He maintained that he had been in touch with the southpaw during the fall-out of the ball tampering scandal in South Africa which saw Warner and Steve Smith banned for 12 months and Cameron Bancroft for nine months.

It is worth mentioning that Williamson and Warner have represented the same Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise (Sunrisers Hyderabad) in the past. Williamson has now replaced the Australian opener as the captain on SRH in 2018 edition of IPL, which is scheduled to begin from April 7.

SRH has cancelled the contract with David Warner in the wake of the ball-tampering incident.

Williamson hoped that former Australian vice captain Warner along with the other two will learn from the tough lessons.

"We've spent a bit of time together in the IPL, played against and with each other. I've sent a few texts, that's about it. He's not a bad person by any means," Williamson said.

"Through what's eventuated in recent times, there's been a lot of emotion and energy pointed at certain players which has gone to extreme lengths. It will blow over in time, but its grown and grown and like I say he's not a bad guy.

"He's made a mistake and certainly admitted that and they are disappointed with that action. They will have to take the strong punishment and move on.

"You always learn from tough lessons and I'm sure they'll do that. But it is a shame that two fantastic, world-class players have made a mistake," he added.

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Reacting to Australia head coach Darren Lehmann's statement where he admitted the team needed to change, and cited New Zealand as an example of a side whose style on and off the field is worth emulating, Williamson credited Brendon McCullum for the change in attitude.

"He (McCullum) was huge in that respect. Setting an environment where we wanted to play the game a certain way and it was reflected in the way we went about our business on the field, but the work went in off the field as well," Williamson said.

"For us, it's about how we want to play the game and that's important to us. It's been a part of our environment for some time and we want to maintain that.

"We believe that suits us as people and we want to commit to that, play as hard as we can on the park, but at the end of the day, the game finishes and you are still people," the Kiwi right-hander added.