CA didn't interview Hazlewood, Starc or Lyon in 2018 Sandpapergate probe: David Warner

David Warner has added fuel to the fire as the Australian cricket fraternity continues to revisit the sandpaper scandal from the 2018 Cape Town Test match. In his latest statement Warner has fired shots at Cricket Australia (CA) accusing them of a ‘cover-up’, alleging that Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were not interviewed during their investigation in the aftermath of the ball-tampering incident eight years back.

Earlier, Warner had said Australia captain Pat Cummins had thrown Usman Khawaja under the bus by brushing off his allegations as ‘pure nonsense’ during a press conference. Cummins also revealed that he was interviewed during the investigation by CA.

However, Warner has again reopened a can of worms accusing CA of being biased in their probe and shielding the bowlers.

"As far as I am aware, CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon in their 2018 investigation. If that's correct, then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn't know?,” Warner posted on his Instagram handle.

"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 added.

All players were given opportunity to speak: CA

A Cricket Australia spokesperson has responded to Warner’s claims asserting that all players were given the opportunity to speak at the time of investigation.

"As we have stated previously, all players were given the opportunity to speak at the time of the initial investigation and have had the ability to come forward with new evidence in the eight years since. Subsequently, CA has respected every player and former players right to provide their own version of events,” a CA spokesperson was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.

However, there was no mention of denying Warner’s claims in the statement that the three bowlers weren't interviewed. CA CEO Todd Greenberg has said that the board will not reopen the investigation and is satisfied with the findings of the process from 2018.