The Australian opener, David Warner as no plans to clearing the air with South Africa captain Quinton de Kock as the former returns to the country where he was banned for a year from the game in March 2018. Warner was accused of tampering with the ball during the “Sandpapergate” scandal almost 2 years ago along with his captain Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft.
Warner received a ban of one year by Cricket Australia, but the incident followed goading from South African fans that Warner felt crossed the line of decency. After a bust-up in the first Test between the Australian and de Kock, some home fans wore masks of Sonny Bill Williams’s face in the next Test. It was a reference to the fact that Warner’s wife had previously been involved in a relationship with the New Zealand rugby player.
EXCLUSIVE!
Hear what David Warner said to Quinton de Kock and listen to what KG Rabada responded with.
Audio contains explicit language. pic.twitter.com/Pj86l0d9kK
— simmi (@simmiareff) March 5, 2018
However, Warner played down suggestions of bad blood between him and the newly appointed Proteas captain.
As per the quotes in The Guardian, Warner said, “Obviously we’ll cross paths playing against each other. But I don’t have his number and I speak to a few of the South African guys but I’ve never played in the same team as him or anything like that. Obviously, it’s a little bit different. I’m sure if I see him on the field and that, we’ll just treat each other how we normally would as respectful opponents.”
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Warner and his Australia teammates are expecting some hostile fans when the two teams meet for the T20 series-opener at the Wanderers on Friday night (Saturday morning AEDT). But this time, the absence of Tests might lessen the probabilities of a major flare-up between the 2 hard-fighting teams.
On his part, de Kock also said he harbours no bitterness towards Warner.
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Talking to the reporters on Thursday, De Kock said, “We haven’t had any conversations, but I think both of us have moved on. We both just love to play the game really hard. I don’t think anything will happen, we will just carry on with the way we need to go about things. If a player on either side decides to take an opponent on, then maybe that fierceness from both teams will reignite. But will both continue to just play the game hard.”
