Australian cricket great David Warner has publicly accused Cricket Australia of a “cover up” during its investigation into the 2018 sandpaper scandal.
In his second explosive social media post on the matter, Warner claimed the governing body never interviewed three of Australia’s frontline bowlers.
“As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation,” he wrote in an Instagram post on Saturday afternoon.
“If that is 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 bombshell allegations come just a day after Warner accused captain Pat Cummins of throwing Usman Khawaja under the bus.
Cummins rejected Khawaja’s claims that the entire team knew about the South African Test series ball-tampering scandal, accusing his former teammate of being “casual” with other people’s lives.
“I think Usman actually says things that are far more serious than (ball tampering allegations). He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper,” Cummins said during a lengthy press conference at Cricket Central on Friday.
“That’s complete and utter nonsense.
“When he says ‘we all knew’, if that he means we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he’s 100 per cent wrong.
“I said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening.”
Speaking on Fox Cricket later the same day, Warner said he stood by Khawaja and “felt for him” following Cummins’ denial.
“I feel that the captain threw Ussie under the bus today. I’m very very disappointed about that,” Warner said.
“I still stick by Ussie and what he said in the book.”
The former Test opening batsmen also revealed the lasting impact on himself, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, who were all heavily penalised by Cricket Australia.
“All three of us have paid a big price in this,” he said.
“I haven’t spoken about it in eight years, but at the end of the day we have to live with these consequences daily. We’ve been served a life punishment.
“We’ve copped abuse.”
When asked whether he believed there should be further inquiries, Warner admitted the previous investigation was “botched”.
“Some of the questions were challenging in a way that it felt like it was being planted on us and we just had to move on and accept responsibility for the three of us,” he said.
The topic has become a major talking point eight years on following the release of Khawaja’s book Sabr, in which he alleges at least one bowler knew of the plot.
“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Warner quickly took to Instagram to back up the claims on Monday.
“It’s 100 per cent accurate, what you’ve said,” he said in a video.
“Uzzie, I throw my full support behind you. I thank you for everything you’ve done.”
Read related topics:Sandpapergate ScandalSport