As a right-hand batsman, Warner played
first-class cricket for
Oxford University,
Middlesex and England. He played 15
Test matches, captaining in 10 of them, with a record of won 4, lost 6. He succeeded in regaining
The Ashes in 1903–04, winning the series against
Australia 3–2. However he was less successful when he captained England on the tour of
South Africa in 1905–06, suffering a resounding 1–4 defeat, the first time England had lost to South Africa in a Test match. He was also to have captained England on the 1911–12 tour of Australia, but fell ill. He was unable to play in any of the Tests, with
Johnny Douglas taking over the captaincy. He was named
Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1904 and also in 1921, making him one of two to have received the honour twice (the usual practice is that it is only won once: the other is
Jack Hobbs). The second award marked his retirement as a county player after the 1920 season, in which he captained Middlesex to the
County Championship title. In the mid-1920s he was Chairman of Selectors, and in 1926 during
industrial strife served as a
Special Constable. He did not, however, play in another first-class fixture until 1926–27, when he captained the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour of
Argentina, in which the four representative matches against the host nation were accorded first-class status. MCC scraped a win in the series by two games to one, with one match drawn. He played one more first-class match, in 1929 for the MCC against the
Royal Navy.
Cricket management After retiring as a player, he became a tour manager, most notably on the infamous
"Bodyline" tour of Australia in 1932–33 in which he was reportedly opposed to the tactics and argued against their use. He was the chairman of the
England Test selectors for several years in the 1930s. He later became President of the
Marylebone Cricket Club. He was knighted for his services to cricket in 1937.
Cricket writing Warner wrote extensively on cricket. He detailed his
Ashes Tests and a history of
Lord's Cricket Ground. He founded
The Cricketer magazine. He was cricket correspondent of the
Morning Post from 1921 to 1933, and subsequently of the
Daily Telegraph. ==Family life==