Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
David Warner has accused Pat Cummins of throwing Usman Khawaja “under the bus” and declared he would not rest until the truth about sandpaper-gate was out.
Cummins faced the media in a marathon press conference on Friday morning, answering questions related to the claims made in Khawaja’s memoir.
The Aussie captain said Khawaja’s allegation that the entire team knew about sandpaper was “100 per cent wrong”.
Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and Warner were all banned for their involvement in the now infamous 2018 Cape Town Test.
Cricket Australia’s investigation found the trio responsible for the incident but Khawaja labelled the entire team complicit.
Warner hit back on Kayo Cricket ahead of the One Day International series between Australia and England on Friday afternoon.
“Look, Pat Cummins was really well prepared this morning and I still stick by Uzzy and what he’s written in that book,” Warner told Kayo Cricket.
“It is the truth and I really, really support him and I actually feel for him at the moment.
“I actually feel that the captain today actually threw Uzzy under the bus and I’m very, very disappointed about that.”
Khawaja said Australia had ball tampered before, including the previous Test match of that series at Port Elizabeth (now known as Gqeberha).
Former England captain Michael Vaughan asked Warner if Australia had used sandpaper in previous Test matches.
“Well, in Uzzy’s book, it was the second Test match,” Warner said.
“They’re the things that baffle me still about the truth, it’s all documented in Uzzy’s book. That’s why I 100 per cent agree with Usman.
“We talk about the Cape Town change room: yeah, there’s two sides of the change room (but) there’s only one in Port Elizabeth.
“I think that gets glossed over quite a bit and there’s a lot more detail there I think Uzzy speaks about in his book that is very hard to grasp that people don’t know.”
Cummins told the media he would answer every question until they could move beyond what he described as an “ugly” period of Australian cricket.
But he may have to face the music again after Warner toyed with the idea he wrote his own book or commit to a tell all.
“Each person is going to have their differences but I’m not going to accept them until the truth is out there,” Warner said.
