David Warner has reopened the sandpaper debate from Australian cricket’s darkest modern chapter with a pointed Instagram post questioning Cricket Australia’s 2018 investigation into the ball-tampering scandal. In his latest post, Warner states that, as far as he is aware, CA never interviewed Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon during its probe after the Cape Town Test. He argues this undermines the long-standing claim that the bowlers knew nothing about the plan.
“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,” he wrote.
The comments come eight years after the infamous “Sandpapergate” incident. During the third Test against South Africa in March 2018, Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper to rough up one side of the ball to aid reverse swing. Then captain Steve Smith and vice-captain Warner admitted they had planned the action, Bancroft carried it out. All three were sent home in disgrace. Smith and Warner received 12-month bans, Bancroft nine months. Warner was also barred from future leadership roles at the time.
The official finding was that only those three players were involved. The rest of the squad, including the bowlers, publicly maintained they had no prior knowledge. In 2021 the four main bowlers from that Test, Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon and Pat Cummins issued a joint statement denying any awareness of the plan.
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David Warner reignites sandpaper controversy with fresh dig at investigation
The sandpaper issue came up again this week with the release of Usman Khawaja’s autobiography. Khawaja claimed the entire team knew what was happening in Cape Town. Warner has strongly backed his former teammate. Cummins, now Australia’s Test captain, responded with a lengthy press conference calling the claims “complete and utter nonsense” and confirming he himself was interviewed at the time.
Warner’s latest post escalates the tension by targeting the original investigation process itself rather than individual players. Cricket Australia responded carefully, saying all players were given the opportunity to speak in 2018 and have been free to come forward with new information since. It did not specifically confirm or deny interviews with the three bowlers Warner named. This latest post by the former left-hand batter has added more heat to the controversy.
