DAVID Warner's name could easily be sitting atop one of the most illustrious pages in the annals of Test cricket.
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I reckon all he needed was a maximum of 10 more overs against Pakistan at Adelaide Oval last Saturday.
It seemed to take Warner about five minutes to progress from 300 to 335 not out. Ten more overs and I'm confident he would have surpassed Brian Lara's world-record individual score of 400 not out.
Ten overs that were never likely, incidentally, to have any bearing on the outcome of the match, which Australia won inside four days, or the two-Test series, which the Aussies led 1-0.
Yet with a remarkable milestone looming large on the horizon, Warner was deprived of his shot at history when Australian skipper Tim Paine declared the innings closed.
And, much as I was surprised, jeez I'm glad Paine called them in.
I was worried I might have been the only one not urging Warner on last Saturday, and dreading the prospect of him breaking the world record, until I read the following comments from Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts.
"I respect the view of people who say David is not their cup of tea ... and that is a really fair perspective," Roberts told SEN radio.
"We all don't have to love each other.
"But hopefully there is a level of human respect for what he is doing and what he is trying to contribute to his team and to the game."
So there you go. It's official. Straight from the mouth of the bloke who runs Cricket Australia, I don't have to like David Warner. I can sleep easily now.
As per Roberts' directive, I will begrudgingly admit to a level of respect for Warner as a batsman. He rates as one of Australia's all-time greats, despite his uncanny impersonations of Peter Cottontail during the recent Ashes series.
But that doesn't change the opinion I have expressed previously on this page, that a big fat red pen should have been drawn through Warner's name after the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
His supporters will argue that he paid his penance by serving 12 months in purgatory.
I'd accept that logic in the case of Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, who were the unfortunate collateral damage in the whole shameful affair.
But Warner is a serial offender and, under a three-strikes policy, "Sandpapergate" should have meant over and out.
His first strike was during the Ashes in 2013, when he punched England batsman Joe Root in a nightclub. He should have been sent home, but instead Cricket Australia stood him down for a couple of Tests and imposed a token fine.
Whatever lessons he learned were forgotten in Durban last year when teammates had to separate Warner as he attempted to get his hands on South African wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock while players were making their way into the dressing rooms during a tea break.
Warner subsequently whined that he was responding to "vile and disgusting" comments de Kock made about his wife, apparently in reference to a certain incident many years ago involving rugby superstar Sonny Bill Williams.
But I don't recall Warner issuing any apology for verbally abusing de Kock all the way off the field to the boundary rope, where he stopped to leave his gloves and helmet to dry out, and then up the players' tunnel.
Sledging has been part and parcel of cricket for decades, and it is largely accepted as gamesmanship in the heat of the battle.
But continuing to berate an opponent after the umpires have removed the bails, signalling an end to play in that particular session, is surely not only unsporting, but deadset un-Australian.
Once again, Cricket Australia's sanction was so insignificant and insipid that it failed to convince Warner to change his ways, and the end result was the now-infamous Cape Town affair, which embarrassed an entire nation and cost Warner and Smith a year of their international careers.
Now both are back churning out the runs, and we're expected to rejoice. We're supposed to accept that Warner has finally realised the importance of playing within the spirit of the game.
Yet according to England all-rounder Ben Stokes, during his matchwinning Ashes innings at Headingley, there was one voice constantly in his ear.
"He just wouldn't shut up for most of my time out there," Stokes wrote of Warner in his recently released book. "A few of the Aussies were being quite chirpy but, in particular, David Warner seemed to have his heart set on disrupting me. I could accept it from just about any other opponent. Truly. Not from him, though."
Paine has since claimed that "by no means was [Warner] abusing him or sledging him", arguing Stokes was just trying to boost sales. But given the premise of the book was to relive Stokes' heroics in both the World Cup final and the Ashes, it is hard to see why any other marketing gimmick would be required.
Regardless of whose version is more accurate, it raises one intriguing question. No matter how many runs he scores in the meantime, would it surprise you if Warner drags the game back into disrepute at some point in the future?