{"id":958226,"date":"2026-11-09T13:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T13:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/958226\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T13:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T13:33:10","slug":"cricket-news-2026-david-warner-breaks-silence-over-2018-ball-tampering-scandal-sandpapergate-supports-usman-khawajas-claims-video-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/958226\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket News 2026 | David Warner breaks silence over 2018 ball tampering scandal, sandpapergate, supports Usman Khawaja\u2019s claims video social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Warner<\/a> has broken his silence on Usman Khawaja<\/a>\u2019s revelations about the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, calling the claims made by his former teammate and childhood friend \u201c100 per cent accurate\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his new book Sabr, which is yet to be published, Khawaja claims the entire Australian Test team knew of the use of sandpaper and openly debated ways to rough<\/a> up the ball during the tour of South Africa eight years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

David Warner breaks silence.\u00a0@davidwarner31<\/p>\n

That has contradicted the long-held stance of Cricket Australia and multiple team members about how few knew about the plan in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Warner, who was Australia\u2019s 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

Two other players, Cameron Bancroft and then-captain Steve Smith<\/a> were made \u201cwholly responsible\u201d for the scandal. <\/p>\n

While Cricket<\/a> Australia released a statement defending its initial investigation and expressing comfort with its findings, Warner took to social media on Monday night to validate Khawaja\u2019s account and thank him for speaking up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been eight years since I\u2019ve spoken on this topic. And Uzzy, I throw my full support behind you. I thank you for what you\u2019ve done,\u201d Warner said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 100 per cent accurate what you\u2019ve said. Now everyone knows the truth. It\u2019s out there. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople wanted to know it, you\u2019ve come out and said it, and now people are saying why eight years on, talking about selling a book. This is Usman\u2019s story. This is what Usman believes. Uzzy wrote down every single thing from that day on…thank you.\u201d <\/p>\n

Warner then directed his frustration towards Cricket Australia\u2019s handling of the 2018 fallout, describing the original interview process as \u201crushed and botched\u201d. <\/p>\n

He questioned how the investigation could be considered thorough when Khawaja, who was sitting directly next to Bancroft in the dressing room, was never formally interviewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow this whole interview process was rushed… Uzzy was not interviewed. How is that a thorough investigation? It baffles me,\u201d Warner continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to point fingers, and we\u2019re not opening old wounds. It\u2019s about accountability, transparency, ensuring that the truth is properly examined. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd perhaps it\u2019s time people stop scrutinising the person asking for accountability, and start asking those responsible for the investigation to provide it.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there were a lot of statements and inaccuracies over the last eight years that were out in the media by people, and there\u2019s a lot of people who stayed silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said the renewed scrutiny has taken an emotional toll on his family, explaining that it took him a few days to speak out because he had to discuss the situation with his daughters.<\/p>\n

When on the South Africa tour in 2018, Warner\u2019s wife Candice and two daughters were accompanying him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple of days I\u2019ve been talking to my daughters, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s taken me a couple of days to get this out because I\u2019ve had to tell them exactly what had happened,\u201d Warner explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially my 12-year-old Ivy wanted to know why we were holding her, why there were so many cameras, why we were crying on TV. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a hard thing to do. But one thing I did say is \u2018girls, tell the truth, because lies will eventually get out\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very tough time. This is for everyone in Australia. It\u2019s been the question everyone\u2019s been asking. Uzzy, you said how it is, it\u2019s 100 per cent accurate. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough time for my family, Steven [Smith], and Cameron [Bancroft] no doubt. But this is what needed to come out. <\/p>\n

\u201cI fully support that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at Melbourne Airport on Monday, Bancroft declined to weigh in further on the ball-tampering saga that resulted in a nine-month ban. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Warner and Khawaja have supported each other\u2019s claims that the Australian team was aware of foul play. \u00a0AP<\/p>\n

\u201cIn regard to Uzzie\u2019s book and the media that\u2019s come about there over the last couple of days, I don\u2019t have any further comments to add at this stage,\u201d Bancroft said to reporters. <\/p>\n

The recent claims made by Warner and Khawaja have cast fresh scrutiny on Australia\u2019s four bowlers from that South African tour.<\/p>\n

Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon maintained, in a statement three years after the scandal, that they were entirely unaware that sandpaper was being used on the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that \u2018we must have known\u2019 about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those players are yet to comment on the new claims by Khawaja and Warner.<\/p>\n

In 2018, captain Smith had claimed in the infamous press conference that \u201cthe leadership group knew about it\u201d and were \u201cnot proud of it\u201d when asked of the ball-tampering. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Warner has broken his silence on Usman Khawaja\u2019s revelations about the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, calling the claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-958226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958226","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=958226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}