Warner accuses Cricket Australia of 'cover-up' over 'Sandpapergate'

David Warner accused Cricket Australia of a "cover-up" over the 2018 ball‑tampering scandal in Cape Town while speaking in Sydney on Saturday (November 14, 2026). The former opener, who was banned for a year over his part in the incident, posted on Instagram to condemn what he called "a shoddy investigation."

The dispute resurfaced this week after Usman Khawaja released his autobiography, in which Khawaja alleged that the whole team knew about the plot to rough up the ball with sandpaper during the third Test at Cape Town. A Cricket Australia probe at the time concluded that only then‑skipper Steve Smith, his deputy Warner and Cameron Bancroft were in the know; the three were sent home from South Africa. Those findings and the punishments imposed in 2018 remain central to the renewed public debate.

Warner directly challenged Cricket Australia’s handling on Instagram, writing: "As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation," and continuing, "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 claims prompted immediate reaction from current players. On Friday, Pat Cummins, now the Test captain, held a lengthy press conference to rubbish Khawaja's latest claims, calling them "100 percent wrong"; Warner in turn accused Cummins of throwing close friend Khawaja "under the bus." Mitchell Starc said during the week that "we weren't aware of things being taken on the field." Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon had yet to comment.

Separately, Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon and Pat Cummins had all denied publicly in a 2021 statement that they were aware of the ball‑tampering plan. That earlier collective denial is part of the public record cited by both supporters and critics of the original investigation.

Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening the 2018 investigation. In a statement on Saturday a CA spokesperson 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." The spokesperson added, "Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players' right to provide their own version of events."