David Warner, the Australian opener, who served a 12-month suspension for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal against South Africa in Cape Town last year , smashed 107 from 111 balls to pave the way for the defending champions’ 41-run success over Pakistan in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019.
Warner fought back tears when apologising for his wrongdoing at an emotional press conference in March 2018.
The 32-year-old admitted he at times suffered with motivation during his lengthy enforced lay-off and said wife Candice was responsible for keeping him going.
“I think going through those tough times and sort of regrouping with myself to put myself in the best position to come back to international cricket, I did everything I could,” said Warner in Taunton.
“I really, really knuckled down and trained my backside off. I was always coming back to international cricket, if selected.
“The thing that kept me going was my wife and my kids – I got great support at home from my family,” the southpaw added.
“My wife is just my rock, she’s unbelievable, she’s determined, disciplined, selfless and I hold a lot of credit to her.
“She’s a strong woman and she got me out of bed a lot in those first 12 weeks, got me back running and training as hard as I could and prepared for the other formats of the game that I was playing.
“It was just to maintain my level of fitness and hard work and she really nailed that into me.
“To come out here and play the way I know I can play was awesome. I was elated. It was a bit of relief in a way,” Warner added further.
Candice is a retired professional Ironwoman, surf lifesaver and model. The Ironman sport was developed in 1964 in Australia by Valentine Trainor to combine the four main disciplines of surf lifesaving into a single race – swimming, board paddling, ski paddling and running.
When Warner was asked how he has managed to cope with the boos from the crowd, he said: “We don’t really hear that when we’re out there. At the end of the day we’re out there to do a job. And for me it’s just trying to score runs and having a lot of energy on the field. Boos, these are like water on a duck’s back, you get it all the time. I’ve heard it all my career. In fact it actually pushes us more and makes us knuckle down and try to score more runs if anything.”
