David Warner accuses Cricket Australia of sandpapergate cover-up
Claims the bowlers were never interviewed in the 2018 investigation, only three players were punished and the federation declines to reopen the case
Images
David Warner (left), Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith all served bans for their role in the ball tampering scandal (Reuters)
Reuters
Australia captain Pat Cummins spoke to the media for more than an hour as he responded to Usman Khawaja’s claims (Reuters)
Reuters
David Warner has accused Cricket Australia of a "cover-up" over the 2018 sandpapergate ball-tampering scandal, claiming the federation's own investigation never interviewed the bowlers at the centre of the affair. Warner, the side's vice-captain at the time, was one of three players who served long bans over the use of sandpaper on the ball during the Test series against South Africa; he retired from international cricket in January 2024.
In an Instagram post, Warner wrote that as far as he is aware, Cricket Australia did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in its 2018 investigation. "If that's correct, then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn't know?" he asked. The federation, in his words, "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."
The accusation follows Usman Khawaja's autobiography, in which the batter wrote that the entire Australian team was aware of the ball tampering. Warner has backed the claim. Current captain Pat Cummins, who spoke to reporters for more than an hour on Friday, strongly denied it and suggested he had been spoken to as part of enquiries in 2018. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon have maintained for eight years that they did not know sandpaper was brought onto the field in Cape Town.
Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were the only players Cricket Australia punished in 2018. Head coach Darren Lehmann was cleared of wrongdoing, then resigned at the end of the series anyway. In response to Warner, the federation said all players "were given the opportunity to speak at the time of the initial investigation" and have been able to come forward with new evidence in the eight years since; it has previously said it does not intend to reopen the investigation.
The body that assigned the blame is also the body that has ruled the matter closed.