Australia Test captain Tim Paine lashed out hard at England's Ben Stokes for his comments against teammate David Warner, saying the all-rounder is using the opener's name to "spike book sales".
Stokes claimed in his autobiography, it was Warner's constant sledging that made him more determined and triggered the epic knock that he eventually played to help England clinch the once unlikely victory in the third Ashes Test at Headingley.
"I was obviously standing next to David the whole time and you are allowed to talk on the cricket field. But by no means was he abusing him or sledging him," Paine was quoted as saying.
"It just seems to be a common trend in England that they like to use Davey's name to spike book sales. So good luck to them."
The Aussie skipper once again came in defence of Warner who experienced torrid time in UK as he wasn't scoring runs and also got booed by English fans.
"I was standing right next to him, I had absolutely no issue. The way David handled himself during the Ashes was excellent."
"Particularly given the fact he wasn't scoring a hell of a lot of runs and I'm pretty sure he was on the end of a fair bit himself on and off the field in England," he added.
"So I thought he did a great job of handling that and held himself really well throughout the series. They write books to sell and they have to get headlines to get sales."
"We're going to concentrate on what we do and maintain our own standards. What Ben and England want to do is completely up to them," Paine concluded.
(Inputs from CricketNext)
