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Warner accuses Cricket Australia of 'cover-up'

Warner accuses Cricket Australia of 'cover-up'

Former vice-captain David Warner accuses Cricket Australia of a "cover-up", claiming Australia's bowlers were not interviewed in ball-tampering investigation.

David Warner has accused Cricket Australia (CA) of a "cover up" as the row over the 2018 ball-tampering scandal continued.

Former vice-captain Warner, captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft all served lengthy bans as part of CA's investigation into the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket during a Test series in South Africa in 2018.

Batter Usman Khawaja has reopened discussions about the scandal with explosive claims in his new autobiography, where he said the entire Australia team knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball.

And Warner has questioned the investigation into the incident by claiming that Australia's bowlers from the Cape Town Test were not interviewed.

"As far as l am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation," Warner said.

"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.

The four frontline bowlers - Hazlewood, Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins - have maintained they did not know about the plan to use sandpaper to tamper with the ball.

In brief

David Warner has accused Cricket Australia (CA) of a "cover up" as the row over the 2018 ball-tampering scandal continued. Former vice-captain Warner, captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft all served lengthy bans as part of CA's investigation into the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket during a Test series in South Africa in 2018.

This is the opening of the story, shared with credit to BBC Sport. The rest of the report — with every detail — continues on the publisher’s website.

Continue reading at BBC Sport ↗

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