Sydney, Feb 25 (IANS) Australia vice-captain David Warner said his side was abused by the local crowds for hours on end during their just concluded successful tour of New Zealand.
The Australians moved back to the top of the Test rankings after clinching the two-match series 2-0. They defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in the second Test at Christchurch.
It is understood that some of the taunts from spectators during the New Zealand Tests involved remarks about the players' wives and children.
A spectator was removed from Hagley Oval by security on Day Four for abusing Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood.
On his arrival back in Sydney, Warner said all sportspeople cop it from the crowds at some stage, but he felt what happened in New Zealand was relentless.
"It doesn't matter if you're home or away, you're going to cop some form of abuse, but we don't expect to be hounded for six or seven hours. Some of the stuff was pretty derogatory and pretty vulgar and the upsetting thing was the fact that I know if my two daughters were in the crowd, I wouldn't want them listening to that sort of stuff," Warner was quoted as saying by abc.net.au on Thursday.
"It's irrelevant what they said, but it's just disappointing that that was happening every game. We go out there and we don't expect to be abused every single minute of the game, but it goes with sport in general. You've just got to try and block it out as much as you can," the swashbuckling batsman said.
Warner did not divulge how widespread the abuse was, but said it caused some players to flag it with the team.
"A couple of the bowlers were down on the boundary and you get your odd banter here and there, but when they're talking about people's families and stuff it takes it a little bit too far and some of the boys raised the issue," he said.
The behaviour of the Australian players during the series has also made headlines, with captain Steve Smith and Hazlewood fined for dissent during the second Test.
Warner said Hazlewood's outburst was out of character, while he was certain if Smith had his time again he would not have crossed the line with his language towards an umpire. But the opening batsman defended the behaviour as a show of passion.
"We're about playing the game in the right spirit where if you look back at the history of Australian cricket, we play an aggressive style," the 29-year-old said.
"I love getting in a contest with the bowler. At the end of the day, if the bowler gets you out he gets the last laugh, but if you get on top of him then you get the last laugh.At the end of the day, it's what the ICC has put in place and we have to respect that, Warner said.
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