Australian cricketer David Warner breaks silence on his return to international cricket
Australian cricketer David Warner has broken his silence on his return to international cricket and has spoken publicly for the first time since his ban after the ball tampering scandal.
While Steven Smith and Cameron Bancroft have given TV interviews during their suspension, Warner stayed quiet as he served his 12-month ban.
He spoke to reporters after being named man of the match for his 107 against Pakistan in the World Cup in Taunton.
Warner spoke fondly of his wife and children, saying that Candice especially was “my rock”.
“I was always coming back to international cricket if selected,” Warner said. “The thing that kept me going was my wife and my kids. Got great support at home, my family.
“And my wife is just, she’s just my rock. She’s unbelievable. She’s determined, disciplined, selfless.
“And I hold a lot of credit to her. She’s a strong woman. And she got me out of bed a lot in those first sort of 12 weeks, and got me back running and training as hard as I could, and prepared for the other formats of the game I was playing and I did play.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the kids and the wife. Obviously we’re fortunate enough to have our families away with us which is great and obviously we’re going to be here for a while in the UK. So, look, I’m excited that they’re over here.”
He also spoke about how he was worried whether or not he might not get another chance to play for Australia again after the scandal.
“There was always that going through my mind. And I think that’s what drove me to keep being as fit as I can, keep scoring as many runs as I can in the Twenty20 tournaments that I was playing in.
“And I think going through those tough times and sort of regrouping with myself to put myself in the best position to come back to international cricket, I did everything I could. I really, really knuckled down and trained my backside off.”
Warner stayed “grateful” and realised that he’s “pumped to be back”.
“And I’m just grateful for this opportunity and as I said before, I’m just really looking forward to what’s coming ahead of us here in the World Cup. Pumped to be back, and the boys are on fire here.
“We’ve got a great sort of group harmony, a lot of smiles on the faces as you can see in a lot of the training sessions and out in the field. So, look, I’m pumped.”