Candice Warner fumes over David’s leadership ban ‘joke’

Candice Warner couldn’t contain her emotions as she described the impact her husband’s lifelong ban has had on her family.

Candice Warner and David Warner attends the Sydney Everest Carnival media launch at The Jackson on September 13, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images for ATC)

Candice Warner has unleashed her fury over the painful review process husband David was expected to endure in order to return to leadership positions within cricket.

Speaking hours after David released a furious letter in which he declared he had been subjected to a “public lynching” in the wake of the 2018 sandpaper saga and subsequently withdrew his attempt to overturn his lifelong leadership ban, Candice doubled down.

“We’ve lived with this pain since 2018,” Candice Warner told Triple M’s Summer Breakfast.

“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 (go through the public review process) … 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 (reviewing Warner’s leadership ban) and it’s now December and still no decision.”

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Candice Warner has doubled down on husband David Warner’s angry statement. (Photo by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images for ATC)

Candice briefly broke down while discussing the impact of her husband’s leadership ban on their young family, telling co-hosts Harley Breen and Tom Tilley how their daughters Ivy Mae, Indi Rae and Isla Rose were subjected to abuse while attending cricket matches.

“It’s still raw, we go to cricket so often watching David play and there’s always people yelling things out at the crowd,” Warner said as she choked back tears.

“My daughters proudly wear their dad’s T-shirt with their dad’s name on the back. The fact that my daughters have to cop abuse because of incidents that have happened in the past is not fair.

“David always puts family first, he’s fiercely protective of myself and the three girls, and cricket is not everything, cricket is what he does, but cricket does not define him and the person he is.

“The fact that there was a lack of player welfare (from Cricket Australia), and no welfare about David and our family speaks volumes.”

David Warner and wife Candice Warner pose for a photo with their daughters Ivy Mae (L), Indi Rae (2L) and Isla Rose (R) during an Australian Ashes squad nets session at Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Photo by Mike Owen/Getty Images)

The former ironwoman, who’s been publicly calling for David’s reinstatement to the captaincy ranks for months, went on to describe the whole review process as a “joke”.

Cricket Australia ratified a change to its Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel in November, seemingly opening the door for 36-year-old Warner to have his lifetime leadership ban overturned.

It allowed for applications for bans such as Warner’s “to be considered by a three-person review panel, comprising independent code of conduct commissioners.”

Cricket Australia explained that the commissioners “must be satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist to justify modifying a sanction.”

While that was a positive step for Australia’s star opening batsman, he was not prepared for the commissioners to demand for the whole process to be made public.

“The fact that it wanted to be public … And in whose best interests is it for this to become public?” Candice said.

“Is it for David, for the team, or for the panel’s best interests? The fact they used words like cleansing, to me is a joke.

“That’s not what he wanted and I don’t think it’s what Cricket Australia wanted either. But the panel was very adamant that they wanted it public.”

David Warner of Australia blows on his fingers during day two of the First Test match between Australia and the West Indies at Optus Stadium. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Cricket Australia backed the Warners in arguing for the review process to play out behind closed doors, however the independent panel refused.

Candice also hit out at claims her husband had been working behind the scenes to return to the captaincy ranks.

“He is getting on in age so there was never any expectation that he was going to captain but if there was an opportunity he would have loved to have taken it,” she said.

“That’s the other thing, through this whole process it’s looked like, they’ve made it out like David was campaigning to be captain but that’s not the case at all.”

Hours earlier David Warner released a furious statement on Instagram in which he outlined the reasons for withdrawing his bid to have his captaincy ban overturned.

“Despite my opposition and that of Cricket Australia, on Tuesday last week Counsel Assisting the Review Panel and the Review Panel took it upon themselves to concoct an irregular procedure (overturning presumptions and previous practice) for the determination of my application and establish a novel approach that would negatively impact the health and welfare of my family and the interests of the Australian cricket team,” he said.

“In his submissions, Counsel Assisting made offensive and unhelpful comments about me that had absolutely no substantive purpose under the Code of Conduct.

“Regrettably, the Review Panel acted contrary to the submissions of Cricket Australia and my lawyer and appeared to adopt virtually entirely the position of Counsel Assisting.

“In effect, Counsel Assisting, and, it appears, to some extent the Review Panel, want to conduct a public trial of me and what occurred during the Third Test at Newlylands. 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.

David Warner says he is putting his family first. (Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)

“My family is more important to me than cricket.

“Having had nearly a week to consider that proposal, today the Review Panel has decided to ignore the request in any meaningful way and has provided a dismissive rejection of the substantive matters.

“It appears that the Panel has given no more than passing consideration to issues of player welfare and the interests of Australian cricket and is instead determined to conduct a public lynching.

“Regrettably, I have no practical alternative at this point in time but to withdraw my application. I am not prepared to subject my family or my teammates to further trauma and disruption by accepting a departure from the way in which my application should be dealt with pursuant to the Code of Conduct.

“Some things are more important than cricket.”

There is no suggestion Warner will hang up the boots just yet, with the 36-year-old recently indicating that he intends to play international cricket until the 2024 T20 World Cup, suggesting he may retire from Tests after next year’s Ashes series in England.

“Test cricket will probably be the first one to fall off,” he told Triple M’s Deadset Legends in November.

“Because that’s how it will pan out. The T20 World Cup is in 2024, (one-day) World Cup next year.

“Potentially it could be my last 12 months in Test cricket.

“But I love the white-ball game; it’s amazing.”