David Warner has faced both internal and external censure for his controversial comments regarding South Africa’s reverse-swing in the second Test.
Warner was fined $2880 by the ICC on Thursday but the greatest penalty could be a fired-up opposition, with Proteas coach Russell Domingo promising the words would serve as added motivation for the three-Test series decider that starts on Saturday in Cape Town.
The ICC cited Warner for making “public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an international match”, with the opener handing over 15 per cent of his match fee.
Ryan Harris revealed Warner had also been disciplined internally but would not go into details of the punishment.
“Dave’s comments were obviously wrong and it’s been dealt with by our leadership group and the ICC,” Harris said.
Warner, speaking on Sky Sports Radio, suggested Australia should ask the umpires about the legality of Proteas wicketkeeper AB de Villiers using his glove to “wipe the rough side every ball”.
Harris believed it was clear de Villiers was doing something to the ball, but that his side didn’t believe it was illegal in any way.
“If it was, the match referee would have done something about it,” he said.
Instead match referee Roshan Mahanama was more concerned with Warner’s post-match comments.
“It was disrespectful for David to publicly denigrate an opponent,” said Mahanama.
“I’m sure David will be careful when making public comments in future.”