Former Australia opener David Warner has stood by Usman Khawaja’s revelations about the 2018 Sandpapergate scandal, saying Australia captain Pat Cummins threw Khawaja “under the bus” at a press conference in Sydney this morning.
Cummins had said Khawaja’s claims that the entire Australian camp knew about ball tampering in Cape Town were “complete and utter nonsense”repeating that he had no prior knowledge of plans for using sandpaper to illegally alter the ball.
Warner, who was vice captain at the time of the incident and who received a year-long ban for his involvement, said he was “very disappointed” by his former captain on Fox Cricket’s coverage of the opening ODI between Australia and England in Perth.
“I feel the captain today threw Ussie under the bus and I’m very, very disappointed by that,” Warner said.
Warner said Cummins threw Khawaja “under the bus” at this morning’s press conference. (Getty Images: Daniel Pockett/Cricket Australia)
Warner also stood by his assertion that the initial investigation had been “botched”, and that he, along with fellow suspended players Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, had no choice but to bear the blame.
“The way it was handled in the first place, it was hard for us to go back and give more evidence. I feel like it was a botched investigation,” Warner said.
“It was a quick one to get it over and done with. Some of the questions were quite challenging in the way it was being planted on us and we had to move on and just accept responsibility, the three of us, and we ultimately did.
“We don’t have that opportunity to go there and speak again. [Cricket Australia CEO] Todd Greenberg squashed that the other day. There probably are going to be conversations behind the scenes after this.”
Warner, a childhood friend of Khawaja’s, also said he expected the truth about the saga to come out eventually.
“It’s inevitable. Everyone writes a book at the end of their career but for me it’s about accepting the truth and I just don’t think this will rest,” Warner said.
“It’s very, very difficult with the acceptance of the consequences that we live day to day in our lives.”
Warner described the blame levelled at him, Smith and Bancroft a “life punishment”, saying he and wife Candice experienced a miscarriage in the aftermath of the incident.
“All three of us have paid a big price in this and I hadn’t spoken about it in eight years, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to live with these consequences daily,” Warner said.
“And we’ve been served a life punishment. So when other people talk about that they’ve been affected by it, there’s nothing worse than for me, Steve and Cameron, who have to walk over there every single day and we cop abuse.
“Yes, we accepted it, but at the end of the day, my wife and I as well pay the greatest price.
“We lost a baby during that time. And that’s why it really hurts me the most until the truth is accepted.”
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Earlier today, Cummins claimed he could not explain why Khawaja’s and Warner’s recollections of the incident were so different to his.
“That sounds like a pretty good question for those two,” Cummins said.
“Again, there’s quite a few different accounts here, so they’ve got two accounts.
“There’s 11 players in that room, so that means there’s nine other guys who I think it’s appropriate you give an equal amount of weight into their story as well.”
Source: www.abc.net.au
