DC vs SRH: "It's All My Fault"- Candice Warner Speaks On Her Initial Reaction To David Warner's Sandpaper Gate Saga
Published - 26 Apr 2023, 08:54 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:15 AM
Candice Warner, the wife of Australian cricketer David Warner, has revealed her heartbreaking response to the infamous ‘Sandpapergate’ scandal that rocked the cricketing world in 2018. In an interview with News Corp, Candice spoke candidly about the devastating impact the scandal had on her family.
For those unfamiliar with the events that unfolded, during a test match against South Africa in Cape Town, Australian player Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera attempting to tamper with the ball using sandpaper. The incident led to a full-scale investigation, and the subsequent fallout saw Bancroft, Warner, and captain Steve Smith all banned from international cricket for varying lengths of time.
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Candice Warner revealed that when she first heard the news, her initial reaction was one of disbelief. She recounted that she had just put their two daughters to bed when David called her and broke the news.
It Was Tough To Stand There And Support David: Candice Warner
The incident during the third Test in Cape Town, which saw Cameron Bancroft attempt to tamper with the ball using sandpaper, resulted in heavy sanctions for then-captain Steve Smith, Candice’s husband David, and Bancroft. However, it was actually an earlier incident during the second Test that had a significant emotional impact on Candice Warner and her family.
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During the second Test, a group of South African fans wore cardboard cut-out masks of Sonny Bill Williams, a former rugby league player with whom Candice Warner had an encounter in 2007, in an attempt to taunt David while Candice was in the stands. This incident added to the already bitter atmosphere between the two teams during the series.
In another ugly incident during the same series, David Warner and Quinton de Kock were involved in a heated exchange on a staircase after the play in Durban. It is reported that de Kock made a derogatory comment about Candice and her previous relationship with Williams, which further escalated the tensions between the two sides.
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“For myself and my family, me being pregnant at the time and no one knowing, my two little girls and my mother there – it was embarrassing. It broke my heart. It was … it was tough. It was tough to stand there and support David, but I knew that I had to. I knew I couldn’t leave the stadium – because if I did, David would’ve known that everything had affected me. And then it would’ve affected him.”
“When your name and your past gets dragged up for the few weeks in the lead-up to being sent home, you definitely feel like you are somewhat to blame. Maybe not entirely to blame, but there’s a part of you that goes, if all that in the lead-up didn’t build so much tension, didn’t build so much anger between the two teams, then – you don’t know [what might have happened] … That’s where I thought it was all my fault.”
Candice Warner, who felt unsupported by Cricket Australia following the incident, held herself responsible for the events that unfolded in South Africa.
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