Photo of David Warner and Ellyse Perry sparks ugly conspiracy theory

The Australian newspaper has been accused of sexism over a strange choice of photo of David Warner and Ellyse Perry.

Warner and Perry were the big winners at the Australian Cricket Awards on Monday night, winning the Allan Border and Belinda Clark medals respectively.

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The Australian featured Warner and Perry on their front page on Tuesday morning, but eagle-eyed readers noticed something peculiar.

Warner had been made to look taller than Perry, despite Perry being much taller than Warner in photos from the event.

A number of social media users immediately cried sexism.

However some have argued that it was just a simple mistake brought about by the tight deadlines that newspapers face.

Rather than photoshopping a single photo of the two cricketers, The Australian took two separate photos of Warner and Perry from the red carpet and placed Warner higher.

As Jai Bednall of news.com pointed out, the error probably came about because someone was working to a tight deadline and didn’t have a previous photo of the pair to work with.

“The newspaper was given the result of both medal counts in advance so it could get its pages to the printer in time,” Bednall wrote on Wednesday.

“At that time, the artist only had a select group of images taken as the players entered Crown Palladium in Melbourne — and surprise surprise Warner walked in with his wife, Candice, while Perry arrived solo.

“When deciding how to arrange the two separate photographs, the artist would have placed Perry in front of Warner because he could etch cleanly around her shoulders. Warner’s left side was pressed up against his wife, so he was placed behind Perry.”

Allan Border weighs in on controversy

Allan Border has weighed in on Warner being awarded the medal that bears his name, admitting the voting system might need an overhaul.

The cricket world was rather stunned on Monday night when Warner was announced as the Allan Border Medallist, with the man himself saying he was “shocked” to win after his “horrendous” Ashes series.

Hoards of cricket fans felt Pat Cummins or Steve Smith were more deserving, sparking discussions about whether the current voting system is appropriate.

Speaking on the matter on Tuesday night, Border said Warner’s victory was deserved but admitted there is merit in rethinking the system.

“I’ve heard a little bit of argument about all that and it has some merit. There’s no doubt about that,” Border told Fox Sports News.

“Maybe the voting system can be looked at. We’ve been going for 21 years, it’s probably time to have just a look at how the votes are put together and how it’s all combined over the three, four months of the game for that final winner.

“Maybe it is timely to have a bit of a look at that voting system.”

Votes are awarded on a 3-2-1 basis by players, umpires and the media, with Test matches given a ‘weighting factor’ of six - ahead of one-dayers (3) and T20s (2).