{"id":958104,"date":"2026-11-09T11:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/958104\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T11:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:08:12","slug":"david-warner-backs-usman-khawajas-ball-tampering-claims-slams-botched-cricket-australia-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/958104\/","title":{"rendered":"David Warner backs Usman Khawaja’s ball-tampering claims, slams ‘botched’ Cricket Australia investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Warner has backed Usman Khawaja’s claims on the 2018 ball tampering scandal, saying the statements in his book, Sabr, are “100 per cent accurate”.<\/p>\n

Warner, who was Australia’s vice-captain at the time, was suspended from domestic and international cricket as a result of the scandal and was also permanently barred from leadership positions.<\/p>\n

Speaking for the first time in eight years on the saga, Warner emphatically backed Khawaja, his childhood friend.<\/p>\n

“Uzzie, I throw my full support behind you. I thank you for everything you’ve done,” he said in an Instagram statement.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

“It’s 100 per cent accurate, what you’ve said.<\/p>\n

“Now everyone knows the truth, it’s out there. People wanted to know it, you’ve come out and said it, and now people are saying, ‘Why eight years on?’ talking about selling a book.<\/p>\n

“This is Usman’s story. This is what Usman believes. Uzzie wrote down every single thing from that day on. Uzzie, thank you.”<\/p>\n

Warner slammed Cricket Australia’s investigation into the incident in the wake of the 2018 tour of South Africa. Khawaja was not interviewed as a part of the probe.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

David Warner was suspended from all international and domestic cricket for 12 months following Cricket Australia’s investigation into the incident. (AAP Image\/Ben Rushton)<\/p>\n

“Now, this whole interview process was rushed and botched,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Uzzie was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft [in the dressing room]. Uzzie was not interviewed. How that is a thorough investigation? It baffles me.<\/p>\n

“We’re not here to point fingers and we’re not opening old wounds.<\/p>\n

“It’s about accountability, transparency ensuring that the truth is properly examined, and perhaps it’s time people stop scrutinising the person asking for accountability, and asking those responsible for the investigation to provide it.<\/p>\n

“There [were] a lot of statements and inaccuracies over the last eight years that were out in the media by people and there were a lot of people who stayed silent.”<\/p>\n

Khawaja says he has thrown nobody ‘under the bus’<\/a><\/p>\n

Usman Khawaja has revealed Steve Smith talked him out of going public with claims of widespread knowledge around ball-tampering during the 2018 saga.<\/p>\n

Warner said his delayed response to Khawaja’s claims being made public was down to explaining his involvement in the scandal to his daughters.<\/p>\n

“The last couple of days, I’ve been talking to my daughters and that is why it’s taken me a couple of days to get this out, because I’ve had to tell them exactly what had happened, especially my 12-year-old Ivy,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[She] wanted to know why we were holding her, why there were so many cameras and why we were all crying on TV.<\/p>\n

“That was a hard thing to do, but one thing I did say is, ‘Girls, tell the truth because lies will eventually get out.’ It is a very tough time.<\/p>\n

“This is for everyone in Australia. It has been the question that everyone is asking. Uzzie, you’ve said it how it is, it is 100 per cent accurate.<\/p>\n

“It has been a tough time for my family, Steven [Smith] and Cameron [Bancroft] no doubt, but this is what needed to come out.”<\/p>\n

Warner is the first of the banned trio to speak publicly in the wake of Khawaja’s comments being made public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Warner has backed Usman Khawaja’s claims on the 2018 ball tampering scandal, saying the statements in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,251935,740,18587,18754,525330,85,35235,1211,70541],"class_list":["post-958104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ball-tampering","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-australia","tag-david-warner","tag-sandpaper","tag-sports","tag-steve-smith","tag-test-cricket","tag-usman-khawaja"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}