'CA didn't interview Hazlewood, Starc': Warner’s explosive claim in sandpaper twist

Former Australia opener David Warner has accused Cricket Australia (CA) of covering up details of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, questioning the governing body's investigation into the incident. In another development in the controversy that rocked Australian cricket, Warner claimed that CA did not interview Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc or Nathan Lyon during its investigation in the days after the Cape Town Test in 2018. Warner made the allegation in an Instagram post on Saturday, a day after accusing Test captain Pat Cummins of throwing Usman Khawaja under the bus following the release of Khawaja's memoir, Sabr. His latest comments came a day after Cummins addressed the allegations made in Khawaja's book during a lengthy press conference. The Australia captain dismissed the claims as “complete and utter nonsense”. “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. “If that’s correct, then how can CA push the idea that the bowlers didn’t know? “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.”

The ball-tampering scandal has returned to the spotlight after Khawaja made several claims while promoting his book, alleging that the entire Australian team knew about the plan to use sandpaper on the ball during the Cape Town Test. Cummins rejected those claims on Friday, while CA has previously said it has no intention of reopening the investigation into the incident. Warner had also responded to Cummins' comments on Friday afternoon, ahead of Australia's opening ODI of the summer against England. He said he felt "the captain today threw Uzzie under the bus". The former Australia opener followed that up with another Instagram post on Saturday, questioning the way CA handled the investigation. Warner and then captain Steve Smith were handed one-year bans by CA following the incident, while Cameron Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.