Candice Warner subjected to 'vile' act in front of her kids at cricket Test

Candice Warner has called out a group of bullies after revealing she was subjected to "vile abuse" from a group of men during last week's Adelaide Test, while her daughters were walking by her side. The wife of Aussie cricket star David Warner broke down on air last week after recalling the family "hell" they'd been through over the last four years, in the wake of the infamous 'Sandpapergate' scandal.

David was banned from holding a leadership role within Australian cricket for the rest of his career due to his involvement in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa after being accused of being the 'architect' behind the ploy to use sandpaper on the ball during a Test match at Newlands. The ugly saga has come into the spotlight again in recent days after Australia's opening batter decided to withdraw an appeal to have the lifetime ban overturned.

'GREAT FOR FANS': Cricket world reacts to news about Steve Smith

'WHAT A JOKE': Cricket world in uproar over 'appalling' scenes

'INCREDIBLE': Cricket world erupts over Scott Boland feat

Fearing what he described would be a "media circus" as an independent panel dredged up the ball-tampering controversy again, and acutely aware of how it could open he and his family up to public ridicule and condemnation all over again, Warner dropped his appeal before hitting out on social media. In a lengthy and scathing Instagram post, David insisted: "My family is more important to me than cricket".

David's wife Candice, who is hosting Triple M’s Summer Breakfast radio program alongside Harley Breen and Tom Tilley, gave listeners an example of some of the vitriol the Warner family still faces in the wake of the controversy. She revealed on air that during Australia's thumping win against the West Indies in Adelaide last week, a group of men started hurling disgusting insults Candice's way, while two of her daughters were walking beside her hand-in-hand.

“Saturday afternoon at Adelaide Oval, just before the lunch break, the girls wanted to see their dad,” Candice started off by saying. “So we went from one area of Adelaide Oval to the other. It was probably about 200m. “In that time, I had two of my three daughters, my eight-year-old and my three-year-old, we were walking hand-in-hand, and as we’re walking past a huge group of people, it was a group of five or six men who just started throwing vile abuse at me.

“I continued to walk and then I just stopped and I looked around at this group of men and it was one guy in particular. And they were laughing and they were pointing. And they thought what they did was okay. So I decided to confront them. I didn’t have to, but with my girls in my hands, I thought it was really important to confront them because for us, my actions need to mirror the messages I give to my kids.

“So I confronted them and like any group of men who have been drinking, they were weak, they were gutless, they didn’t own up to what they did and the man who was actual yelling this abuse was hiding behind his friend.” When asked what her response was to the group of men, Candice said she let them know in no uncertain terms that what they were saying was unacceptable.

“I said ‘Do you feel good about yourself, trying to intimidate me, to belittle me, embarrass me in front of my kids? You clearly don’t have kids yourself, it’s not okay. It’s not okay to bully someone, it’s not okay to make fun of other people’,” she said.

“The thing that disappointed me was, one, the fact they thought it was funny, two, that they couldn’t own up to their mistake, but the fact that in a packed stadium, when they could see a mother with two kids clearly in distress, my girls were upset, not one single person came to my assistance. Not one.

“The sad thing is that in a time when we’re trying to encourage more women, more girls to participate in sport, to attend sport, that I’m now starting to feel like it’s not safe for me and my kids to attend sport and support their father.”

Candice Warner's sad reveal after ugly incident

Candice said she felt the need to confront the men - with her daughters in tow - to teach the girls a lesson about standing up to themselves but was shocked when no one else stepped in to offer support. She also came to the sad realisation that taking the girls to the cricket to watch their father no longer felt like a safe space.

“What I was so surprised about was not one person who could see me, visibly upset, distressed and my two daughters and people were happy to just watch this. I know if it was the other way around, I would definitely go and see what’s going on. Now we go to the cricket and I’m starting to feel like it’s an unsafe place for me and my kids to be at.“

Sadly for Candice and her family, the abuse from complete strangers at the cricket has been all too familiar since the ball-tampering scandal and is a massive reason why David did not to dig up old wounds in a dragged-out appeals process. Candice fight back tears revealing that in some cases, the abuse from cricket fans has even been directed towards her children.

“It’s still raw, we go to cricket so often watching David play and there’s always people yelling things out at the crowd,” she said. "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, and no welfare about David and our family speaks volumes.”

Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.