⚖️ Warner backs Khawaja on Sandpapergate, calls CA probe botched

David Warner has put his name behind Usman Khawaja's version of the 2018 Sandpapergate affair. In an Instagram video posted Monday, Australian time, he said Khawaja's account is “100% accurate” and called Cricket Australia's investigation “rushed and botched,” according to AP, whose report first ran Nov 8 at 12:22 PM ET.

Who says what

AP reports Warner's video came days after excerpts of Khawaja's book implied that the three players suspended over the Cape Town ball tampering were scapegoats for the team. Warner told Khawaja, “I throw my full support behind you,” and said, “Now everyone knows the truth.” In a caption, AP says, he wrote that “some things are bigger than cricket.”

"Perhaps it's time people stop scrutinizing the person asking for accountability, and start asking those responsible for the investigation to provide it."

David Warner, Instagram video, as reported by AP via Yahoo Sports

Sporting News quotes Warner calling the whole interview process “rushed and botched” and “baffling,” and adds that he told his daughters, “Tell the truth, because lies will eventually get out.” That outlet frames his video as piling pressure on Cricket Australia to explain its work. That framing is Sporting News's, not a finding.

Khawaja's claim comes from the Sydney Morning Herald, which interviewed him ahead of his memoir Sabr. The paper reports his “most remarkable revelation”: sandpaper was first discussed and used by the team in the previous Test at Port Elizabeth. “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff,” he told the paper. He also says he was never interviewed by Cricket Australia, though he sat next to Bancroft throughout the Cape Town Test and had urged the team to take collective responsibility.

The response

No public reply from Cricket Australia to Warner's video turned up in the reports read. Sporting News reports that last weekend the board declared it remains ‘comfortable’ with the findings of its 2018 investigations. In 2021, per the Herald, bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon released a statement denying any knowledge of “a foreign substance” being taken onto the field. AP says Cricket Australia, team management and other players have rejected the everyone-was-in-on-it claim for eight years.

The Herald's own account of the probe cuts against the word “botched” without settling it. It describes the inquiry as swift and ring-fenced around day three at Newlands, concluded before the final Test so Cricket Australia knew how many replacements to fly in. It also confirms CA did not interview all players and staff. That is the Herald's description. Cricket Australia's 2021 position, reported by Fox Sports, was that nobody had presented new information casting doubt on the findings.

What happens next

Penguin Books Australia lists Sabr with a release date of Nov 10, 2026. None of the reports read announces a new review, hearing or deadline from Cricket Australia. Sporting News says current Test captain Pat Cummins is under pressure to break his silence, but no statement from him is in the pack.

The 2018 scoreboard

Here is what the original paperwork says. Cricket Australia's statement of March 28, 2018 said the key finding was that prior knowledge was confined to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. All three were charged under Article 2.3.5 of the Code of Conduct. That is the very finding Khawaja now disputes.

All three were also required to do 100 hours of community cricket service. On April 5, 2018, Cricket Australia said the players had accepted the charges and sanctions, so no hearings were needed. Warner tweeted that he “fully accept[ed]” them. In October 2024, ESPN reports, a Cricket Australia Conduct Commission review lifted his lifetime leadership ban after six-and-a-half years.

As of Nov 9, 5:11 AM ET, the confirmed part is narrow: Warner has publicly backed Khawaja and called the 2018 probe “rushed and botched,” and Khawaja's claims are in print via the Herald ahead of the Nov 10 book release. Pending: any Cricket Australia response to Warner, and any step on the Port Elizabeth claim. The 2018 findings stand as published and nobody in the reports read has produced documents to overturn them.