· The gloves are off as Test sides seek a mental edge

David Warner has been fined $2880 by the ICC for his controversial comments regarding the reverse-swing South Africa generated in the second Test.

The ICC cited Warner for making “public criticism of, or inappropriate comment in relation to an incident occurring in an international match”, with the opener handing over 15 per cent of his match fee.

Warner, speaking on Sky Sports Radio, suggested Australia should ask the umpires about the legality of Proteas wicketkeeper AB de Villiers using his glove to “wipe the rough side every ball”.

“It was disrespectful for David to publicly denigrate an opponent,” said match referee Roshan Mahanama.

“I’m sure David will be careful when making public comments in future.”

Ryan Harris attempted to distance his side from Warner’s controversial comments.

“I’ve got no doubt what they did was fine, otherwise the umpires and the match referee would have done something,” Harris said.

“They’ve obviously looked after the ball a lot better than us, and if there’s anything illegal about it, I’m sure we would have heard about it by now.”

The issue has dominated the lead-up to the three-Test series decider at Newlands in Cape Town, which starts on Saturday.

Warner’s past off-the-cuff colourful remarks in the series have been viewed internally by the Proteas and Cricket South Africa as harmless.

But they have taken great offence to his latest line, with coach Russell Domingo warning it had his team fired up for the third Test.

“It’s a bit disappointing when guys throw those kind of accusations around,” Domingo said.

“We’ve added 10 per cent to our motivation levels after those comments.

“We pride ourselves on playing the game as honestly and openly as possible.

“We’re very motivated by the comments he made, so it’s probably good for us.”

Warner was regularly in trouble last year, but has been on the straight and narrow and in great form since the start of the 2013-14 Ashes.

In the lead-up to the 2013 Ashes in England, Warner was fined $5,750 over a series of expletive-ridden tweets directed at two journalists.

Three weeks later, he punched Joe Root in a Birmingham bar.

He was fined $11,500 and given a Champions Trophy suspension that effectively made him unavailable for the first two Tests of the 2013 Ashes.

Warner was then given a one-match suspended sentence from Cricket NSW in early October for skipping a grade game.