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Candice Warner has revealed the public scrutiny her family has faced following her husband’s ball tampering scandal after he withdrew his attempts to overturn his leadership ban.
The 36-year-old and former Australian vice-captain unloaded in a statement on Instagram on the eve of the Adelaide test, claiming the independent panel had made “offensive” comments and wanted “a public trial of me and what occurred during the Third Test at Newlands”.
“They want to conduct a public spectacle to, in the Panel’s words, have a “cleansing”. I am not prepared for my family to be the washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry,” Warner wrote.
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“Some things are more important than cricket.”
Speaking on Triple M’s Summer Breakfast show, Candice Warner echoed her husband’s comments and said her family had been through hell.
“Oh most definitely. We’ve lived with this pain, through this pain since 2018,” she said.
“And it gets to a point where enough is enough.
“Dave’s statement was very powerful and it had to be.
“I refer to his statement where he says family comes first. There’s more important things than cricket and (David) is fiercely protective of his family and he just couldn’t … there are more important things than cricket and that’s the bottom line.
“We have been through hell.
“To put our family, also his teammates through everything again and the disappointing thing for David is this has been dragged out for so long.
“Everything first kicked off in February and it’s now December and still no decision.”
The 37-year-old was clearly emotional as she reflected on the past year.
“It has been an incredibly intense, not just 12 months, but since March 2018, we live it day to day, that pain doesn’t go away,” Warner said.
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“It is still raw, we go to the cricket so often to watch David play and there is always people yelling things out in the crowd, or at my daughters who proudly wear their dad’s T-shirt with their father’s name on the back.
“The fact my daughters have to cop abuse because of incidents that happened in the past is not fair.
“My husband David, he always puts family first, he’s fiercely protective of myself and our three girls.
“Cricket is not everything, cricket is what he does, but cricket does not define him and the person he is, the fact there was a lack of player welfare and no welfare about David and our family speaks volumes.”
Candice said her husband was of the impression the review would focus on his development and growth since the 2018 ball tampering saga, but instead it became an “unnecessary” and “disappointing” series of events.
She said she believes Australian cricket fans no longer wants to hear about the ball tampering scandal and revealed her husband was informed the trial, which he described as a “lynching”, would be a “public” affair.
“There will be people who will say, ‘oh why am I chatting about this today’, but it affects everyone, it has affected us for so long,” Warner said.
“I am pretty sure everyone does not want to continue talking about this and the fact that it has been dragged on about this captaincy ban all year, when it could have been stopped months ago.
“And now that we are into the second Test of the summer, and David was told last week before the Perth Test that it was going to be a public trial.
“Not just himself but players and coaches would have to be cross-examined, it is just outrageous.”
