Shock jock Ben Fordham has revealed the text furious cricket WAG Candice Warner sent him after he dared to criticize husband David for his role as an architect in the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket.
Warner, who is on the publicity trail for her new memoir “Running Strong,” has been a fierce defender of her husband, whom she married in 2015 and shares three daughters: Ivy, Indi, and Isla.
David was the one who asked his much younger teammate, Cameron Bancroft, to rub sandpaper on a ball in a test series against South Africa in 2018, which caused the cricket world to collapse and Australia to become the laughingstock of the game.
And while Candice has often pointed out that she didn’t approve of what happened in one of the biggest cheating dramas to rock the sport in recent times, she’s been a fierce defender of detractors of the ex-vice-captain.
And so does Fordham, currently the second highest rated presenter on Sydney radio, who was one of the few media personalities at the time to champion the beleaguered Australian cricket side.
Candice Warner has always been a staunch defender of husband David, despite his role as an architect in the ball-tampering saga.
Radio star Ben Fordham has revealed that Candice texted him after he criticized her husband David’s role in the Sandpapergate scandal that shattered Australian cricket.
Candice, pictured with David at the races, said she shockingly even felt responsible for the ball-tampering saga.
He revealed that Candice had sent him a private text when he criticized David at one point, which left him stunned.
“At first the cricketers said ‘okay, we can apologize for this and move on’, but the cricketing public, not only around the world but also in Australia, said ‘no, hold on, this is a big deal’,” he said further 2GB Monday morning.
“I remember one time I made a comment about your husband and received a message from you saying, ‘Do you have a moment to chat off-air?’
“I had a conversation with you and you explained to me… you reminded me that he held a press conference where he said he was sorry and he was doing things behind the scenes to try to make up for the mistakes he had made. made.’
In 2018, Fordham actually said that while he understood that some would ‘condemn them (Warner, Bancroft and then Captain Steve Smith) for being stupid cheats’, he didn’t think they had done enough to ‘enforce their right to represent Australia at to give’. ‘.
But things still didn’t sit well with Candice, who continues to be affected by the drawn-out saga that took Australian cricket years to bounce back from, and was dredged up again last year when Warner pushed for his lifetime leadership ban for being the architect of the cheating scheme will be destroyed.
An irate Warner sent radio shock jock Ben Fordham a private text after he criticized husband David’s role in the ball-tampering scandal
South African fans and cricket officials (left) mock David Warner during the second Test in 2018 wearing Sonny Bill Williams masks – referring to wife Candice’s infamous toileting with the NRL star
She denounced Malcolm Turnbull’s comments that the so-called ‘Sandpapergate’ was ‘disgraceful conduct’, and shockingly placed some of the blame for the incident at her own feet; and then South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock for essentially instigating the moment when Warner defined his career.
“No, I had no idea (how big the scandal would be). It didn’t help when Malcolm Turnbull made the comments he did, it really blew things out of the water,” she told Fordham.
“We felt like criminals then.”
‘You have to remember the run-up, Cape Town was the third test match. The first test match took place and that’s where South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock made lewd comments to David about me (and infamous toilet visits with Sonny Bill Williams).
“Then you go to the second Test in Port Elizabeth and it was all about Quinten de Kock and his comments, and then we had the (Sonny Bill) masks and songbooks.
“It was the reason why I thought it (ball-tampering scandal) was my fault was because it was my past and things that had happened to me that had been brought up.”
A disbelieving Fordham told Candice “but you weren’t the one on the field cheating,” but the impassioned mother-of-three and ex-Ironwoman still said she carried the burden.
‘No, I had nothing to do with it (ball mess scandal)… but I felt like I was contributing to why people do certain things… and took away the reason why the party is actually there (to play cricket ),’ she said.
When David and Candice Warner returned to Australia after ‘Sandpapergate’ in 2018, they were greeted by a huge crowd of media
Although often criticized for throwing Australian cricket and some of David’s teammates under the bus, Candice is a model with unwavering faith and loyalty.
When he ended two years of poor form with a double century against that very South African side late last year, she criticized Cricket Australia officials and his teammates, saying it was one of the reasons why his form was slipping (and not yet has happened). since again).
“It hasn’t been an easy summer with the bat, and behind the scenes he hasn’t really gotten a lot of support where it’s needed,” she said on Boxing Day.
She told Fordham on Monday that she will always defend her husband, who continues to divide opinion and refuses to believe he is at the end of his career.
“David kept extremely quiet, and he still is, and I think it takes a lot of strength to keep quiet when you’re portrayed as the villain in someone else’s story,” she said.
“If I can support him behind the scenes as much as possible, I will.”
You can count on that.