Source : the age
Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon were all interviewed by Cricket Australia as part of the organisation’s 2018 investigation into the Sandpapergate ball-tampering scandal, contradicting David Warner’s sensational claims of a cover-up.
Warner dropped his bombshell allegation on Saturday, claiming CA had conducted a “shoddy” investigation by not including the trio of his former teammates in integrity chief Iain Roy’s probe conducted in the days after the controversial Cape Town Test.
“As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation,” Warner posted to Instagram, where he has 10.3 million followers.
“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.”
But two sources with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, have told this masthead the three bowlers were spoken to by Roy in the governing body’s original investigation, directly contradicting Warner’s claim.
This masthead has reached out to representatives of Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon for comment.
CA released a statement earlier in the afternoon in response to Warner’s allegation, saying the organisation respected the differing recollections among the 2018 playing group. The statement did not say if any of the three players were interviewed by Roy.
“As we have stated previously, all players were given the opportunity to speak at the time of the initial investigation [into the ball-tampering saga] and have had the ability to come forward with new evidence in the eight years since,” a CA spokesman said.
“Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players’ right to provide their own version of events.”
The developments came the day after Test captain Pat Cummins delivered an extraordinary 69-minute press conference in response to Usman Khawaja’s claims in his memoir Sabr that the whole team knew of the ball-tampering plot.
Khawaja, who has not spoken publicly since Cummins’ press conference, was due to appear on The Grade Cricketer podcast on Sunday as part of his publicity tour, but that interview has been postponed to Thursday. He was due to make an appearance at a book-signing event in Merrylands in western Sydney on Saturday, but publisher Penguin said it had been postponed, too.
Khawaja is scheduled to play in the T20 Gold Clash exhibition game in Cairns on November 22. He’s been named to play alongside the likes of Brian Lara, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey against a team featuring former AFL and NRL stars.
CA chief Todd Greenberg said this week the governing body would not be reopening the investigation, despite Khawaja’s allegations.
Cummins answered questions for over an hour on Friday morning in hopes to “draw a line” through the sandpaper scandal, but it has not silenced Warner, who, along with former captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft, served hefty bans from CA in 2018.
Warner’s claims on social media were the second time he had hit out in just over 24 hours in his quest to find what he believes to be the truth.
“Pat Cummins was very well-prepared this morning and I still stick by what Uzzy [Usman Khawaja] said, what he’s written in that book,” Warner told Fox Cricket.
“That is the truth and I really, really support him [Khawaja]. I’m actually feeling 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.
“Each person is going to have their differences, but I’m not going to accept them until the truth is out there.”
Smith has not spoken publicly since the issue returned to the public spotlight last weekend. Bancroft spoke briefly on Monday but did not go into detail about the events of 2018.
Earlier on Saturday, former Pakistan captain and legendary swing bowler Wasim Akram – whose family is based in Melbourne – took to X to give his take on Sandpapergate.
“I saw Pat Cummins, who’s a very close friend of mine, [a] great cricketer, one of the top leaders in world cricket, the way he leads his team from the front, and he said he didn’t know [about any plot to tamper with the ball],” Akram said.
“It’s my opinion, and it can be right or wrong, but as a bowler, when the cricket ball comes in my hand, either it’s the fifth over, either it’s in the 10th over, either it’s in the 50th over – the old ball – where you look after the ball, you shine the one side if it’s a dry day, a dry square, you one-bounce throw [in from the outfield], you get it scratched a bit, but the sandpaper scratch is totally different than the one-bounce scratch.
“As a cricket lover, if you want to check, grab a semi-new cricket ball, grab sandpaper, and rub it in – you know the scratches are totally different.
“Again, like I said, I’m not taking anybody’s side … Australians are known and famous for their straightforwardness, hardness on the field, off the field, and, most importantly, honesty.”
