Warner claims Cricket Australia ran a 'shoddy' Sandpapergate inquiry

David Warner has accused Cricket Australia of running a ‘shoddy’ investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, claiming three of the bowlers were never interviewed. His Instagram post on Saturday came a day after Australia captain Pat Cummins rejected Usman Khawaja's claim that the team knew sandpaper was being used.

The row was reignited by Khawaja's autobiography, Sabr. In it, the former opener says the entire Australian team knew sandpaper would be used on the ball before the third Test against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town, in 2018. Cummins says the bowling group had no such knowledge.

Cummins hits back

Cummins answered the claims at a marathon press conference on Friday. Sky Sports reported that he dismissed Khawaja's version as ‘utter nonsense’ during a session lasting 68 minutes.

According to The Guardian, Cummins said that if Khawaja meant ‘we all knew’ sandpaper was going onto the field, he was “100% wrong”. “I did not know that was happening,” he said.

Cummins also denied that he and other players had planned the tampering. He said he was surprised to learn that Khawaja had admitted warning Cameron Bancroft to be careful while using the sandpaper.

Warner's cover-up claim

Warner, Australia's vice-captain at the time, has publicly backed Khawaja since the allegations emerged. He had earlier accused Cummins of putting the blame on Bancroft and, according to The Guardian, said Cummins had thrown Khawaja ‘under the bus’.

In his Instagram post, Warner wrote that, as far as he was aware, Cricket Australia (CA) did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon during its 2018 investigation. He asked how CA could maintain that the bowlers did not know if that was correct.

“That stinks of a cover-up.”

Warner also wrote that CA appeared to have ‘decided who they wanted to blame from the very beginning’. Those are his claims. CA has backed its investigation, and Sky Sports said it had approached the governing body for comment.

Sources disagree on the interviews

Nine.com.au, citing The Age, reports that two sources with knowledge of the matter say the three bowlers were interviewed. That contradicts Warner's account.

Sky Sports reports that Khawaja says in his book that CA did not call him for an interview after the scandal. A CA spokesperson said all players were given the chance to speak during the initial investigation and have been able to bring forward new evidence in the eight years since.

CA also engaged Dr Simon Longstaff, executive director of The Ethics Centre, to carry out a broader review of team and corporate culture. Longstaff told Nine's Weekend Today that he almost immediately heard ‘whispers’ that more people had known than the three sanctioned players. He said he gave senior figures the chance to add to their statements, but “Nobody chose to make any alteration to their statement”. That left him without enough to justify a further inquiry at that time.

The background

Warner, Steve Smith and Bancroft were the only players sanctioned. Warner and Smith each received 12-month bans, and Bancroft a nine-month suspension, according to Sky Sports. Cummins, Starc, Lyon and Hazlewood were not punished.

Sabr has also opened a separate dispute with former fast bowler Jason Gillespie. Khawaja criticised Gillespie's comments after his retirement press conference, and Gillespie has called that criticism ‘ridiculous’.