Sports

Warner Calls Cricket Australia’s 2018 Ball‑Tampering Investigation a Cover‑Up

By AFP

Former opener David Warner, who was banned for a year for his role in the 2018 “Sandpapergate” incident in Cape Town, accused Cricket Australia (CA) of conducting a “shoddy investigation” and of a cover‑up. On Instagram, Warner said CA had not interviewed bowlers Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon during the 2018 inquiry and questioned how CA could claim the bowlers were unaware of the plan. He added that the investigation appeared to have been designed to assign blame from the start and that CA now seeks to maintain a false narrative that the bowlers had no knowledge. The controversy was reignited this week when former Australian batsman Usman Khawaja released an autobiography alleging that the entire team knew about the sandpaper plot. A CA probe had concluded that then‑captain Steve Smith, deputy Warner and Cameron Bancroft were aware, and all three were sent home from South Africa. Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon and Pat Cummins publicly denied knowledge of the plan in a 2021 statement. Cummins, now Test captain, held a news conference on Friday dismissing Khawaja’s claims as “100 percent wrong” and Warner accused him of “throwing Khawaja under the bus.” Starc said “we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field.” Hazlewood and Lyon have not yet commented. CA has said it will not reopen the investigation and stated that all players were given the opportunity to speak during the initial inquiry and have been able to provide new evidence in the eight years since. The spokesperson added that CA has respected every player’s and former player’s right to present their own version of events.