David Warner arrives with his family in Sydney on Thursday night. Credit:Janie Barrett "As you can understand it's been a tough and emotional time for my wife and the kids," Warner said. "At this present time, you'll hear from me in a couple of days. At the moment my priorities are to get these kids in bed, rest up and let my mind be clear so I can think." Earlier, he released a statement apologising and taking responsibility for his part in the episode. In its investigation findings, Cricket Australia painted Warner, 31, to be the primary perpetrator of Australia's ball-tampering scandal.

In the official narrative, it was Warner who devised the sandpaper plan and told opening partner Cameron Bancroft how to execute it. For that, he is paying an enormous price, with millions of dollars in playing contracts out the window and sponsors abandoning him one by one. The English media, in particular, giddy with schadenfreude, have been merciless in sinking the boot into a player and a man they truly hate. A thought, however, should be spared for Warner in all this. His wrongdoing in the Cape Town conspiracy should be understood through the wider lense of what went on in South Africa in the preceding weeks and his role in the Australian team. Emotional: Steve Smith addresses the media at Sydney Airport, with father Peter standing behind him. Credit:Janie Barrett

No one can condone what occurred at Newlands but it was the tipping point for a rotten Australian team culture, one that had happily endorsed and encouraged Warner - nicknamed 'the Bull' - as its state-sanctioned attack dog and instigator of confrontation. It was an unofficial position he had only recently reclaimed after a two-year period of relative calm in which he was dubbed 'the Reverend', having grown tired of being told "to go out there [and] do this and that". It was not until Matthew Wade was dumped for the Ashes four months ago - after being chosen the previous summer largely for his antagonising attributes - that Warner got his bite back. Loading The Australian team's hierarchy, desperate to knock over England, certainly didn't complain about it as they romped to a 4-0 win. They were a team that played hard, aggressive, winning cricket and he was the frontman for it.

They also didn't have a problem with the chirping at Durban that led to Warner's heated stairwell altercation with Quinton de Kock. The South African wicketkeeper's vile insult of Warner's wife - and later the posing by two Cricket South Africa officials with spectators wearing Sonny Bill Williams masks - gave licence to the vile crowd behaviour that followed in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. David Warner and his family leave Sydney Airport on Thursday night. Credit:Janie Barrett Cricket Australia made an official complaint about players being sledged about their wives and partners but what hasn't been as widely reported is that Candice Warner and the couple's daughters were also abused directly throughout the second and third Tests, leaving them in tears. Warner's wife is said to blame herself for the way everything has turned out.

Loading She shouldn't, of course. The leap to plotting to cheat should never have been made. But it occurred in the midst of a poisonous series in which South Africa, via firstly a player and then a couple of officials and crowd members, decided to play ugly, getting down in the gutter with family abuse. The attacks on Warner and his family were raised by radio broadcaster Alan Jones in a letter to Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland. In it, Jones claimed the conduct was a product of "inadequate" management and he raised the subject of the abuse of the Warners. "We need to understand that Warner, who’s just taken us, through his captaincy, to almost number one in the world T20 rankings, has been the victim of awful behaviour towards him and his wife," Jones wrote. "That is unbelievable pressure and it’s clear that the 'leadership' has been of not much use to him. I know that for a fact. Steven Smith is temperamentally unsuited to deal with all the things that have been swimming around him. So they’ve made this grievous mistake."

Darren Lehmann said he couldn't continue as coach after seeing what Steve Smith and David Warner went though. Credit:AP Jones has angered Sutherland by lobbing a personal attack of his own at the CEO with allegations about his teenage son Will's behaviour on trip last year with a junior team in which three hotel rooms were damaged. A Cricket Australia spokesman explained that the damage was paid for and that Will Sutherland, one of those responsible, had written a letter of apology. There could be more pressure on Sutherland, with sponsors abandoning CA and broadcast rights ambitions going south. It is unclear whether Warner will appeal but sources close to him say his version of events was that more than just three players knew about the efforts to try and rough up one side of the ball last Saturday, claiming there was tacit knowledge in the camp of what was going on even if the use of sandpaper wasn't necessarily spelled out. He has another five days to contest the CA findings or the severity of his penalty - a 12-month ban from playing and a lifetime suspension from leadership roles, or both.

Loading And there was a clue from the Australian Cricketers' Association about the basis of an appeal if Warner or Bancroft, who also left his options open, choose to go down that path. The players' union argued that the sanctions dealt out were "considerably higher" than those of the ICC, and disproportionate with those handed down around the world when players had been sprung for "changing the condition of the ball". They also contested the role of the CA board in deliberating on the penalties, claiming that was outside the scope of the organisation's code of behaviour. They were unhappy that the governing body had not appeared to consider "contextual factors including the environment in South Africa during the series and the impacts on individual players". Warner, like Smith and Bancroft, are not going to restore their images and somehow return to their former glory by getting out on a technicality.