A day after David Warner came to the aid of Usman Khawaja in the wake of Australian captain Pat Cummins's press conference, the former opener decided to pose further questions about the 2018 sandpaper scandal. The big-hitting left-hander pointed out that three leading bowlers in the squad were not spoken to by Cricket Australia's probe team following the incident, which made it "shoddy".
Warner, who had earlier claimed that his family suffered the most after the scandal exploded, elaborated on why the probe felt like a cover-up. "As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation," Warner posted on Instagram on Saturday.
"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," he further wrote on Instagram.
Usman Khawaja blew open the 2018 sandpaper scandal—which saw Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft punished for a plot to tamper with the ball using sandpaper in Australia's Test against South Africa in Cape Town—during the release of his autobiography, Sabr, this week. The former opener claimed that all staff and players knew that the Australian team was using sandpaper to tamper with the ball. Smith, Warner, and Bancroft were banned after "Sandpapergate", with Cricket Australia asserting only that trio were privy to the plot.
Earlier, Warner aligned himself with former teammate Usman Khawaja after captain Pat Cummins termed his claims on Sandpapergate "complete and utter nonsense".
"I was genuinely shocked this week when I found out that Usman admitted that he told Cam to be careful when using sandpaper," Cummins said, adding that Khawaja had been instrumental in helping the Australian squad turn around what he described as a sometimes ugly, win-at-all-costs culture.
"When he says we all knew, if by that he means we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he's 100% wrong. I've said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to tamper with the ball using sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense," captain Cummins had said.
"That's not the Usman that I know. It's not the Usman that I think has been part of a team that's helped rebuild the Australian cricket culture over the last eight years," he said. "And the one that would have stopped that from happening there and then."
It was then that Warner came out in support of his fellow left-hander. Warner said the players who were in the team in 2018 will have different opinions. "I still stick by Uzzy and what he's written in that book, because it is the truth, and I really, really support him," Warner told Fox Sports.
"I actually feel for him at the moment. I actually feel that today, the captain threw Uzzy under the bus, and I'm very, very disappointed about that."
"At the end of the day, Pat's not going to agree with me, I'm not going to agree with him," Warner said. "He's obviously spoken about what he thinks about Uzzy's book, but I stand by Uzzy and his comments.
"For me it's about accepting the truth, and I just don't think this will rest."
