David Warner has threatened to unleash another Sandpapergate scandal in the future after accusing Pat Cummins of throwing Usman Khawaja under the bus on Friday, as cricket’s civil war goes into overdrive.
The Test captain’s response left some from Australia’s 2018 South African touring party “flabbergasted”, according to Channel 7’s Tom Morris.
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And Warner, who was quick to back up Khawaja following the first release of his claims last weekend, quickly declared he still stands by his former opening partner.
“Pat Cummins was very well prepared this morning and I still stick by Uzzy and what he’s written in that book,” he said ahead of Australia’s first ODI against England in Perth.
“It is the truth and I really, really support him. 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.”
Cummins agreed the bans handed down to Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were too harsh after an investigation found they were the only players behind the plot, but rejected Khawaja’s assertion that the entire team knew.
Warner repeated that he, Smith and Bancroft “have paid a big price in this”.
“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 and we’ve been served a life punishment,” he said on Fox Sports.
“So when other people talk about they’ve been affected by it there’s nothing worse for me, Steve and Cameron who have to walk out there every single day and we cop abuse.
“Yes, we accepted it, but at the end of the day my wife and I paid the greatest price — we lost a baby during that time. That’s why it really hurts me the most until the truth is accepted.”
Warner’s wife Candice revealed in mid-2018 that she had miscarried only a week after her husband’s emotional press conference in Sydney following his return from South Africa.
Candice later shared that she suffered a second miscarriage that year, before a successful pregnancy and the safe arrival of their third child in 2019.
Warner repeated that he felt Cricket Australia’s 2018 investigation was “botched” in that he felt it was “a quick one to get (it) over and done with”.
“Some of the questions were quite challenging in a way that it was being planted on us and we had to move on and accept responsibility, the three for us. And ultimately we did,” he said.
“The thing for us is we don’t have that opportunity to go there and speak again. (CA chief executive) Todd Greenberg squashed that again the other day. There’s probably going to be more conversations behind the scenes after this.
Mark Waugh, sitting to Warner’s left, echoed the thoughts of Justin Langer among others in saying point blank that it was time to move on.
But Warner forecast he would still speak again in some form one day.
“In time, potentially, it’s inevitable everyone writes a book at the end of their careers. For me it’s about accepting the truth — I just don’t think this will rest,” he said.
“I’m going to respect your comments about moving on but it’s very, very difficult with accepting the consequences that we live day to day in our lives.
“It’s challenging. We come here (to a cricket ground) to do our job and I’m still getting called the architect, the fixer. It really, really hurts. It’s also affected Australia and the Australian cricket team.
“It’s important to us allow to heal it but until the truth’s accepted it’s going to be very, very difficult.
The conversation ended with Adam Gilchrist asking again whether Warner might one day tell his side of the story.
“Each person can have their differences but I’m not going to accept them till the truth is out there,” he said.
During the discussion, Warner said he had recently spoken with both Khawaja and Bancroft.
He said both are “quite upset about this all” and claimed none of their teammates have been willing to speak about Sandpapergate with the players.
“I think that’s the mateship that we talk about, the honesty that you have with each other, there’s been no contact or questions about it,” Warner said.
“We’re all adults, we’re open to conversations. I’ve played golf with Pat Cummins a couple of times, I’ve been in the changeroom since then and played and won some World Cups — it’s just never been questioned or asked about.
“At the end of the day Pat’s not going to agree with me, I’m not going to agree with him. He’s obviously spoken about what he thinks about Uzzy’s book but I stand by Uzzy and his comments.”
Asked by Michael Vaughan if sandpaper was used before Cape Town, Warner pointed to Khawaja’s book rather than offering his own story.
He then referenced Cummins’ explanation that the Newlands changerooms featured more than one area for players to talk and therefore discuss sandpaper tactics.
“They’re the things that baffle me still about the truth. It’s all documented in Uzzy’s book and that’s why I 100 per cent agree with Usman,” he said.
“We talk about the Cape Town changeroom — yeah there’s two sides of the changeroom. But there’s only one in Port Elizabeth.”
— with AAP
