David Warner walked off mid-innings in a Sydney grade game after "hurtful" comments from the brother of ex-Test teammate Phillip Hughes, who died in 2014 after being hit by a ball, his wife claimed Sunday. The former Australia vice-captain, who is serving a 12-month ban from international and state cricket for his role in a ball-tampering scandal, was batting for his club Randwick-Petersham at the time on Saturday.
He left the field on 35 but returned shortly afterwards following the intervention of teammates, and went on to score a majestic 157. Candice Warner said Jason Hughes - the brother of Phillip, whose tragic death rocked the sporting world - was the culprit. "Look, 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," she told Channel Nine.
Cricket Australia's website claimed that what started as goading from Hughes soon turned personal and Warner - who has a fierce on-field reputation - decided to leave before it escalated. Sydney's Daily Telegraph alleged that Hughes called Warner "a disgrace" and "weak" and claimed one witness heard a direct reference to Phillip Hughes's death. But Hughes' club Western Suburbs denied any abuse was hurled and defended him.
"There was no barrage of sledges aimed at David Warner by any WSDCC player," it said in a statement. "There was a brief exchange between Jason Hughes and David Warner. This exchange had nothing to do with Phil Hughes.