David Warner Accuses Cricket Australia Of 'Cover-Up' In Sandpapergate Probe

Former Australia opener David Warner has accused Cricket Australia (CA) of conducting a flawed investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, questioning why senior bowlers Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon were allegedly not interviewed during the inquiry. The controversy has resurfaced following the release of Usman Khawaja's autobiography Sabr, in which the former opener claimed knowledge of the ball-tampering plan extended well beyond the three sanctioned players - Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft - and involved the entire dressing room. In an Instagram post on Saturday, Warner challenged Cricket Australia's long-standing position that the bowlers had no prior knowledge of the plan to alter the condition of the ball, arguing that the investigation's approach raised serious questions about how responsibility was assigned following the infamous Cape Town Test.

Warner, who received a 12-month suspension alongside Smith after the scandal, took issue with suggestions that Australia's frontline bowlers were unaware of the operation. He questioned the basis for that conclusion, pointing to the reported absence of interviews with three senior members of the bowling attack.

"As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation. If that's correct, then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn't know?" Warner wrote in an Instagram post.

"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."

Earlier on Friday, Australia Test captain Pat Cummins strongly rejected Khawaja's allegations during a lengthy press conference, describing the claims that players knew about the use of sandpaper on the field as "complete and utter nonsense" and "100 per cent wrong".

Cummins also pushed back against Khawaja's suggestion that race played a role in leadership decisions, saying such allegations required evidence and accusing the former opener of being "casual and flippant with people's lives and reputations".

While commentating during the first ODI between Australia and England on Friday, Warner publicly backed Khawaja's version of events, describing it as "100 per cent accurate" and accusing Cummins of throwing his former teammate "under the bus".

The renewed war of words has once again thrust the 2018 ball-tampering scandal into the spotlight, with conflicting accounts from former and current Australian players continuing to fuel debate about one of the most controversial episodes in the country's cricket history.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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