Australian Cricketers' Association chief Todd Greenberg said on Friday that David Warner was left with no choice but to ditch his leadership ban appeal, and that Cricket Australia had "lost control".
Warner this week withdrew his bid to overturn a lifetime captaincy sanction imposed after the infamous ball-tampering scandal of 2018, furious that an independent review panel wanted to make it public.
The batsman said he was concerned for the well-being of his family and the Australian team should they have to relive those traumatic times in the media glare.
Greenberg said it should never have got to this point.
"The moment Cricket Australia outsourced the review, in my view, they lost control of that process," he told SEN sports radio.
"Why the panel decided the issue needed to be a public hearing after both CA and David agreed the matter be held privately is beyond me, and I think lacks a real level of common sense.
"The process became a long way removed from the one David agreed to participate in, that's why I don't think David had much choice to do what he did."
Greenberg added that the ACA were "unbelievably frustrated".
"Not just for David, for his teammates who I know are really annoyed around this process that was allowed to drag into the middle of the Test summer."
Warner was cast as the key villain in the so-called 'Sandpaper-gate' scandal during a Cape Town Test, having conspired with then-skipper Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to illegally alter the surface of the ball.
He was suspended from playing for a year and banned from any leadership role for life.
Adding fuel to the fire, Warner's manager James Erskine on Thursday told the same broadcaster it was naive to think more people did not know what was going on.
He also claimed the players were given permission to ball-tamper by two unnamed "executives" some 16 months before the Cape Town incident.
"The truth will come out, let me tell you," Erskine said.