David Warner claims Cricket Australia investigation into 2018 scandal was flawed

Former Australia vice-captain David Warner has reignited the controversy surrounding the 2018 ball-tampering incident in South Africa, alleging that Cricket Australia conducted a flawed investigation. Warner claimed that three bowlers who played in the third Test were not interviewed by officials at the time.

Writing on social media on Saturday, Warner stated that Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon were excluded from the initial inquiry. He argued that this omission undermines the official narrative that the bowling group was unaware of the plan to use sandpaper on the ball.

The former opener described the 2018 investigation as a "shoddy" process designed to assign blame to specific individuals. He asserted that the failure to interview the entire bowling quartet "stinks of a cover up" and maintained that the sanctioned players have been living with the consequences of a poorly handled inquiry.

A spokesperson for Cricket Australia responded to the claims by defending the integrity of the original investigation. The governing body stated that all players were given the opportunity to provide their accounts at the time and have remained free to come forward with new evidence in the eight years since the incident occurred.

The latest comments follow a week of public tension involving current Test captain Pat Cummins and former teammate Usman Khawaja. Khawaja’s recent memoir, Sabr, prompted a detailed response from Cummins, who reiterated that he had no prior knowledge of the ball-tampering scheme during the Cape Town Test.

Cummins addressed the media on Friday, rejecting allegations that he and other bowlers were architects of the plan. He expressed surprise at claims that he had failed to support Khawaja, while Warner publicly backed Khawaja’s account of the events, stating he felt the current captain had "thrown him under the bus."

Warner, along with Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith, remains the only player sanctioned by Cricket Australia in connection with the 2018 scandal. The former vice-captain noted that he had refrained from discussing the matter for eight years before the recent resurgence of the debate.

The Australian team is currently preparing for the first one-day international against England in Perth, where the focus remains on the upcoming series despite the ongoing public discourse surrounding the 2018 tour.