David Warner has accused Cricket Australia (CA) of a “cover-up” as debate over the 2018 ball-tampering scandal resurfaces.
Warner, former vice-captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft all served lengthy suspensions after CA investigated the ball-tampering incident that shook Australian cricket during the 2018 Test series in South Africa.
The controversy has been reopened by batter Usman Khawaja, whose new autobiography claims the entire Australia team knew about the use of sandpaper to alter the ball.
Warner has now questioned the scope of CA’s investigation, saying Australia’s bowlers from the Cape Town Test were not interviewed.
“As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation,” Warner said.
“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.”
The four frontline bowlers — Hazlewood, Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins — have maintained that they did not know about the plan to use sandpaper on the ball.
Cummins, Australia’s Test captain since 2021, said at an extraordinary news conference on Friday that he was interviewed as part of the investigation.
Responding to Warner’s comments, CA said: “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.
“Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players’ right to provide their own version of events.”
