Warner accuses Cricket Australia of 'cover-up' over 'Sandpapergate'

SYDNEY: David Warner blasted Cricket Australia’s handling of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal as “a cover-up” on Saturday, escalating a row that has torn apart the sport.

Former opener Warner, who was banned for a year over his part in the “Sandpapergate” incident in Cape Town, lashed out at what he claimed was “a shoddy investigation”.

“As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation,” he said on Instagram.

“If that’s correct then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn’t know?

“It looks like they had decided who they wanted to blame from the very beginning, ran a shoddy investigation to serve the purpose and now they want to maintain the false narrative that the bowlers had no idea.

“That stinks of a cover-up.”

Festering wounds over what happened in the third Test at Cape Town were re-opened this week when Usman Khawaja released his autobiography.

In the book, he alleged that the whole team knew about the plot to rough up the ball with sandpaper to make it swing.

A Cricket Australia probe concluded only then-skipper Steve Smith, his deputy Warner and Cameron Bancroft were in the know, with all three sent home from South Africa in disgrace.

Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon and Pat Cummins all denied publicly in a 2021 statement that they were aware of the plan.

On Friday, Cummins, now the Test captain, held a lengthy press conference to rubbish Khawaja’s latest claims, calling them “100 percent wrong”.

In response, Warner accused him of throwing close friend Khawaja “under the bus”.

Starc also stated during the week that “we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field”. Hazlewood and Lyon have yet to comment.

Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening their investigation and in a statement on Saturday said all players had been given the chance to come forward.

“As we have stated previously, all players were given the opportunity to speak at the time of the initial investigation and have had the ability to come forward with new evidence in the eight years since,” a spokesperson said.

“Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players’ right to provide their own version of events.”