Cricket
14 hours ago
"Stinks of a cover-up": Warner blasts CA over 'missed' detail in Sandpaper investigation
By SEN
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David Warner has taken aim at Cricket Australia over its investigation into the infamous Sandpapergate from the Cape Town Test in 2018.
In a statement on his personal Instagram, Warner asserted that the national body had not interviewed Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood or Nathan Lyon during their investigation into the events prior to Cam Bancroft being caught using it.
“If that’s correct, then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn’t know?” he asks.
As a result, the former opener believes this was with the intention of serving a 'false narrative' to the public that the bowlers had no idea.
This comes after Pat Cummins’ press conference on Friday, where he stated he had no knowledge that sandpaper had been taken on the ground to tamper with the ball.
In 2021, the three accused, alongside Cummins released a joint statement following Bancroft’s interview with The Guardian, denying knowledge of sandpaper being used on the field.
“We 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," they said at the time.
“And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that ‘we must have known’ 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.
“None of this excuses what happened on the field that day at Newlands. It was wrong and it should never have happened."
