Warner backs Khawaja’s ‘sandpapergate’ claims: ‘Accurate’
Former Test cricketer David Warner has labeled Usman Khawaja’s “sandpapergate” allegations as “100 per cent accurate”.
Source: Instagram (David Warner)
Former Test cricketer David Warner has dramatically raised the stakes in Usman Khawaja’s “sandpapergate” allegations, strongly endorsing his former Australian teammate.
Warner, one of three players banned for the 2018 ball tampering controversy, said what Khawaja had outlined in his autobiography was “100 per cent accurate” and praised him for his courage.
It is the first time Warner has spoken so openly about sandpapergate, calling the Cricket Australia investigation “rushed and botched”.
Warner, Steve Smith and Cam Bancroft were suspended, and Khawaja has ripped off the Band-Aid from eight years ago by claiming the whole team knew what was happening.
“Uzzi, you said it how it is. It’s 100 per cent accurate,” Warner said in an Instagram post on Monday.
“It’s been a tough time for my family, Steven and Cameron, no doubt. But this is what needed to come out. I fully support that, Uzzi.
“I stand with my brother Usman Khawaja. Speaking your truth takes courage, especially when people would rather you stay silent.”
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Warner was also scathing of the investigation process.
“Now, this whole interview process was rushed and botched,” he said.
“Uzzi was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft. Uzzi was not interviewed. How is that a thorough investigation? It baffles me.
“We’re not here to point fingers, and we’re not opening old wounds. It’s about accountability, transparency, ensuring that the truth is properly examined.”
Excerpts from Khawaja’s book were published over the weekend, revisiting one of the biggest controversies in Australian sports history.
Bancroft was caught using sandpaper to doctor the ball during the third Test in Cape Town in 2018, leading to a Cricket Australia investigation and the three bans. Conjecture has long continued over whether other teammates were aware of the ploy.
Warner said he decided to speak out after spending the past couple of days talking to his daughters about the events at Newlands and the fallout that followed.
“One thing I did say is, girls, tell the truth, because lies will eventually get out,” Warner said.
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“It’s a very tough time. This is for everyone in Australia. It’s been the question that everyone’s been asking.
“Perhaps it’s time people stop scrutinising the person asking for accountability, and start asking those responsible for the investigation to provide it.”
Predictably, there has been plenty of comment since Khawaja’s allegations were made public on Saturday.
Scott Boland brushed aside the claims, saying he had seen nothing untoward in his time as a Test and Victorian paceman.
Recent Test opener Nic Maddinson also dismissed Khawaja’s comments, saying they were disappointing and the retired star had a book to promote.
There have been denials — including from current captain Pat Cummins — that knowledge of the tampering was widespread through the Australian team.
Khawaja has gone further, saying Victoria was master of ball tampering a few years ago, when Boland was starting his first-class career. Boland made his Test debut three years after the dramas in Cape Town.
“I don’t know what the ‘dark arts’ are. You probably have to ask Usman for that,” Boland said on Monday in Melbourne.
“But in general, the last [eight] years since Cape Town, reverse swing has really gone out of the game.
“From my point of view, I haven’t really seen anything untoward.”
Maddinson, who made an unsuccessful return to the Test team on last month’s South African tour, said it was disappointing that sandpapergate had been revisited.
“But … it’s that time of year, isn’t it, where Christmas comes along and people have books to sell, so things come out,” he said.
“The three guys who have been affected the most (Smith, Bancroft and Warner), it doesn’t really help them at all to relive it, especially over the past month.”
-with AAP
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