Sydney [Australia], November 14 (ANI): Former Australia opener David Warner has questioned Cricket Australia's (CA) investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, popularly known as Sandpaper Gate, alleging that the governing body may have conducted a flawed probe to maintain a narrative that the bowlers were unaware of the incident.
Warner raised questions over the investigation while sharing a post on Instagram amid the ongoing controversy, claiming that Australian bowlers Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon were not interviewed during the 2018 investigation.
"As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation. 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," Warner wrote, while sharing a post on Instagram.
Earlier, Warner slammed Australian Test skipper and former teammate Pat Cummins for "throwing Usman Khawaja under the bus" after the pacer denied the explosive claims about the 2018 ball-tampering scandal during the South Africa tour, made in Khawaja's autobiography, and accused him of being "casual and flippant" in the way he presented his side of things.
Cummins on Friday addressed a presser, denying Khawaja's bombshell 2018 Sandpaper Gate revelations made in his autobiography titled 'Sabr' and the effect it has had on him and the Australian cricketing fraternity.
During the presser, while Cummins still addressed Khawaja as a friend, he called him out for his "utter nonsense" claims and for being "casual and flippant" with his story, causing harm to the reputations and lives of his teammates.
Warner, who had come to Usman's support when the left-hander called for collective responsibility and revealed that everyone knew about the sandpaper being brought in, said, as quoted by Fox Sports, "Pat Cummins was very well-prepared this morning (Friday)."
"I still stick by Uzzie, and what he’s written in that book... It is the truth, and I really, really support him. I actually feel for him at the moment; I feel that the captain today threw Uzzie under the bus, and I am very, very disappointed about that," he added.
Warner said that he, then-captain Steve Smith, who was banned for a year from competitive cricket and Cameron Bancroft, who also received a nine-month suspension, paid a "big price" for the incident.
"All three of us have paid a big price in this. I had not spoken to ‘Banger’ (Bancroft) in eight years, but at the end of the day, we have to live with these consequences daily. We have got to live with these consequences daily, and we have been served a life punishment. So, when other people talk about how they have been affected by it, there is nothing worse for me, Steve and Cameron who have to walk out there every single day."
“We cop abuse. Yes, we accepted it. But my wife and I pay the greatest price — we lost a baby during that time. That is why it really hurts me the most, until the truth is accepted," he added. (ANI)
