CANDICE FURYAT ‘ABUSE’

CANDICE Warner is adamant her star husband was the subject of “abuse” from Phillip Hughes’ brother as two years of simmering tensions from sport’s saddest and ugliest feud resurfaces.

David Warner walked from the field midway through his innings in a Sydney club cricket match following a verbal altercation with Jason Hughes. The incident has sparked a war of words, with Western Suburbs Cricket Club releasing a statement yesterday denying Hughes referenced his late brother in the heated exchange with Warner, who was batting for Randwick-Petersham on Saturday.

Speaking on Channel 9’s Sports Sunday, Candice Warner refused to go into detail about the exchange, but confirmed Jason Hughes’ involvement, and declared that the comments which prompted David Warner to walk from the field were abusive and had gone “too far”.

Warner’s decision to remove himself from any prospect of a conflict with Hughes came nearly eight months after he was slammed for having the opposite reaction outside the dressing rooms in Durban, when he had an explosive confrontation with Quinton de Kock over remarks the South African had made about his wife Candice.

The wider context of Hughes clashing with Warner on a cricket field dates back two years to the inquest into Phillip Hughes’ tragic death where the family’s resentment towards players, including Warner, and Australian cricket was laid bare over what had happened to their son. Players who took the stand at the inquest such as Warner, Doug Bollinger and Hughes’ batting partner Tom Cooper all presented a united front that sledging and short-pitched bowling plans had not taken place in the match where the former Australian opener was fatefully struck.

Members of the Hughes family were visibly incensed in the inquest courtroom when certain remarks were made by players on the stand and Warner on video link from an overseas tour.

Since the inquest, it’s understood Jason Hughes had not been face-to-face with Warner until Saturday’s clash.

Candice Warner said the incident which prompted her husband to momentarily leave the field was unacceptable on the part of Jason Hughes.

“I’m not going to go into the details, however, David was taken aback by the comments and thought they went a little bit too far, so he decided to remove himself from the game.

“There is a difference between sledging and abuse. I won’t get into what was said but yesterday went too far.

“I personally would put it in that category [abusive].”

A couple of hours later, Western Suburbs Cricket Club hit back hard in defence of Jason Hughes.

“There was no barrage of sledges aimed at David Warner by any WSDCC player,” president Michael Swan said.