David Warner Claims CA Investigation Into Ball-Tampering Was a Cover Up
“As far as l am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation,” David Warner said on Saturday, fanning the flames of Australian cricket’s civil war by claiming three members of the bowling attack during the third Test against South Africa were never questioned.
The former Australia vice-captain asserted on social media that the ball-tampering investigation “stinks of a cover up,” pointing to the period immediately after Cameron Bancroft was spotted handling sandpaper on the field in Cape Town, The Guardian reported. The trio formed part of a bowling quartet at the time alongside Pat Cummins.
Warner questioned how Cricket Australia could maintain the stance that the bowlers remained entirely unaware of the scheme. He claimed officials decided who to blame from the outset and executed a superficial inquiry to serve that purpose.
“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,” Warner posted on Instagram.
The latest public dispute unfolded a day after Cummins addressed the controversy during a marathon press conference on Friday at Cricket New South Wales headquarters in Sydney. Cummins defended himself against allegations made in Usman Khawaja’s memoir, Sabr.
“When he says ‘we all knew’, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out on the field he’s 100% wrong,” Cummins told reporters. “I’ve said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening.”
Cummins added that Khawaja went further in the book by framing him and others as architects of the ball-tampering scheme. Calling the assertion complete nonsense, Cummins expressed genuine shock over revelations that Khawaja instructed Bancroft to be careful while using the sandpaper.
Warner fired back hours later while speaking on Kayo Cricket during the build-up to the first one-day international between Australia and England in Perth. He stated he fully supports Khawaja and believes the current Test captain threw a teammate under the bus.
“It’s the truth and I really, really support him,” Warner said on Friday. “I actually feel for him at the moment. I actually feel that the captain today actually threw Uzzy under the bus, and I’m very, very disappointed about that.”
Warner, Bancroft, and Steve Smith remain the only players sanctioned following the initial 2018 investigation, which concluded the trio possessed prior knowledge of the sandpaper plot. Warner emphasized the heavy personal toll of accepting a life punishment.
“All three of us have paid a big price in this,” Warner said. “I hadn’t spoken about it in eight years. But we must live with these consequences daily; we've been served a life punishment.”
Cricket Australia maintained the integrity of its original process while offering an avenue for players to revisit the historic events. A spokesperson said that every participant received the opportunity to speak during the initial inquiry and retained the right to bring forward new evidence over the subsequent eight years.
“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 Cricket Australia spokesperson said. “Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players right to provide their own version of events.”
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