Warner accuses Cricket Australia of 'cover-up'

David Warner accused Cricket Australia of a "cover up" on 14 November 2026 as the row over the 2018 ball-tampering scandal continued, saying Australia's bowlers from the Cape Town Test were not interviewed in the original inquiry.

Warner, who retired from Australia duty in 2024 and received a year-long ban for his role in the incident, reiterated criticism of the response to the episode that occurred during a Test series in South Africa in 2018. Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft also served lengthy bans after CA's investigation, and batter Usman Khawaja has reopened debate in his new autobiography by claiming the entire Australia team knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball.

Warner questioned the scope of Cricket Australia's 2018 investigation and named specific bowlers he says were not spoken to, saying: "As far as l am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation." He added: "If that's correct, then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn't know?"

Continuing his critique, Warner accused CA of preconceived blame and a flawed inquiry, saying: "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.

Pat Cummins, who has been Australia's Test captain since 2021, said in an extraordinary news conference on Friday that he was interviewed as part of the investigation and dismissed suggestions the entire team knew as "100% wrong" and "utter nonsense".

Cricket Australia responded to Warner's comments with a statement that 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."

Warner publicly defended Khawaja after the memoir's claims became public, saying: "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 original inquiry despite sitting next to Bancroft in the dressing room.

Cricket Australia has said it will not reopen its investigation, and the dispute remains driven by contrasting accounts in Khawaja's autobiography and statements from current and former players.