David Warner believes he can still captain the Australian cricket team after his strong public stance against the hierarchy in the bitter pay dispute.
Unlike Australian skipper Steve Smith, who chose to work largely behind the scenes, vice-captain Warner was a strong critic of Cricket Australia's handling of the crisis.
Asked whether his card may now be marked in terms of captaining Australia, Warner told Nine Network's Sports Sunday: "I highly doubt that ... from where I sit I was doing just what I had to do to be in the frontline for all the players."
Warner said he and Smith had spoken and understood their differing roles during the protracted negotiations.
"I was going to take it upon myself and represent the players and be more vocal and he (Smith) was sort of going to go behind closed doors and get them talking and make sure he was on the same page with the ACA (players' union) and Cricket Australia," he said.
"The way he went about it was how he wanted to play it and I was always going to come out and be vocal and sticking up for the players."
While the players' are widely seen as winners from the agreement reached last week, the left-hander diplomatically declined to claim a victory.
"We regret the way it's been played out in the media..." he said. "This is done and dusted and some wounds need to be healed."
Warner said he saw firsthand that the public, without inside knowledge of the pay talks, had struggled to work out who was at fault as the dispute left over 200 players temporarily unemployed.
But he did not believe it put more pressure on the highly-paid players to be successful on the field and build fans' support as the summer's home Ashes series looms.
Asked whether he felt relations between the players and hierarchy could be mended, Warner replied: "I like to think we can put this behind us and move forward and work together."
He hoped there wouldn't be a similar situation in five years when the next memorandum of understanding is negotiated.
"We know as players we will still stick together and if we have to go down the same path we will, but we would not want that again."
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