Warner accuses Cricket Australia of 'cover-up'

David Warner has accused Cricket Australia (CA) of a "cover up" as the row over the 2018 ball-tampering scandal continued.

Former vice-captain Warner, captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft all served lengthy bans as part of CA's investigation into the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket during a Test series in South Africa in 2018.

Batter Usman Khawaja has reopened discussions about the scandal with explosive claims in his new autobiography, where he said the entire Australia team knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball.

And Warner has questioned the investigation into the incident by claiming that Australia's bowlers from the Cape Town Test were not interviewed.

"As far as l am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation," Warner said.

"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."

The four frontline bowlers - Hazlewood, Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins - have maintained they did not know about the plan to use sandpaper to tamper with the ball.

Cummins, Australia's Test captain since 2021, said in his extraordinary news conference on Friday that he was interviewed as part of the investigation.

In response to Warner's comments, CA said: "As we have stated previously, all players were given the opportunity to speak at the time of the initial investigation and have had the ability to come forward with new evidence in the eight years since.

"Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players' right to provide their own version of events."

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Warner has been steadfast in his defence of former batting partner and childhood friend Khawaja since his recollections were made public last week.

After Cummins' news conference, in which he said suggestions the entire team knew about the scheme to cheat were "100% wrong" and "utter nonsense", Warner said: "I stick with Uzzie. It's the truth. The captain threw Uzzie under the bus.

"I feel it was a botched investigation."

Khawaja also revealed he was not interviewed as part of the investigation, despite sitting next to Bancroft - the player seen with sandpaper on the field - in the dressing room.

CA has said it will not reopen its investigation.