Cricket: Warner slams suggestions WAGS are to blame

David Warner has slammed suggestions the WAGS are a distraction on tour. Photo / Getty Images.

David Warner has slammed suggestions the WAGS are a distraction on tour and insists personality clashes don't translate to there being rifts in the team.

The most transformed man in Australian cricket is on the verge of being named Test vice-captain, yet before he met wife Candice Falzon, his career was threatening to self-destruct as a result of his actions on the road.

Warner said the conglomerate of Australian players and their families was no different to any other functional working environment where people aren't necessarily best mates, but strive to work towards a common goal.

"Not everyone is going to see eye-to-eye on a long tour," said Warner.

"There's going to be the odd hiccough here and there but you just deal with it.

"That's what happens in the work environment.

"You're not going to get along with everyone so you've just got to work out a way to make sure that does not disrupt anything going forward.

"And in our camp at the moment there's nothing there that's been disruptive."

Falzon came into Warner's life almost immediately after he was banished from the 2013 Ashes for getting into a late-night scuffle with England rival Joe Root at the Birmingham Walkabout.

Already that same year Warner had been admonished by Cricket Australia for blasting two journalists on twitter while away at the IPL.

His reputation as a troublemaker and a disruptive influence in the dressing room was starting to precede him.

However, since Falzon arrived on the scene, travelling away with him on nearly every tour, Warner has turned his life around.

He's made nine Test hundreds in that time, sworn off alcohol almost entirely and has lifted himself into the frame for an official leadership role as Steve Smith's deputy.

Warner says travelling with Falzon and baby daughter Ivy Mae has given his life on the road perspective and grounding.

"I don't know where that (WAGS criticism) has come from," he said.

"My take is I love having my family on tour.

"I think everyone out there knows that when you go to work on a day-to-day basis, when you come home to your family it's a great thing and that always keeps me smiling.

"The other day we had a bad day (at Trent Bridge). We went into the change rooms,
spoke about it, got over it, and came home and had our family here and we're all down together playing with our kids in the foyer. It's fantastic to have them along."

Falzon told Triple M's The Grill Team that the WAGS strive to improve the preparation of the players for Test matches rather than distract them from the job at hand.

"The most important thing is the boys," said Falzon.

"It's about getting them ready, getting them on the field and making sure they're 100 per cent ready to go.

"I think a lot of them would be very unhappy if their kids or partners weren't here because there's a lot of things we do behind the scenes that people don't know that help get the boys on the field and make sure they're in a good mental space.

"It doesn't matter if it's the off-season, when he had a little injury - I was in the pool with him swimming laps.

"If he needs extra fitness, I'm there. After training, I make sure the bath's running.
"I can only speak for myself, but I make sure David is ready to go. When the game's there, he's ready to go 100 per cent every time."

Former great Ian Healy sparked the whole debate by suggesting an Ashes tour - with all its added pressures and expectations - may be compromised by the WAGS distracting some players.

Warner suggested Healy was forgetting the fact that England is one of the few cricketing nations compatible with bringing families along.