Australian ball-tampering scandal: Cricket Australia’s biggest fear

NOT for the first time in his career, David Warner has become the most feared man in world cricket. The difference is that this time it is not his ultra-large bat that is the weapon of concern, writes Robert Craddock.

NOT for the first time in his career, David Warner has become the most feared man in world cricket.

The difference is that this time it is not his ultra-large bat that is the weapon of concern – it is his tongue that could truly become a weapon of mass destruction.

Warner will face the media in Sydney at 11am on Saturday and Cricket Australia officials have never been more nervous about what a player could say.

That is understandable but let’s just make one key point.

This is no time for cover ups.

However much it hurts the wider world, Warner must tell the truth, no matter how sordid and chastening that truth may initially seem.

Warner went rogue earlier in the week following the ball tampering affair in South Africa when he took himself off the team app and has had minimal contact with his teammates since.

David Warner, right, is due to make a statement on the scandal on Saturday. (AP Photo/Michael Sheehan)

Apart from a few words at Sydney airport on his arrival home, Warner’s only public utterance came via social media.

“Mistakes have been made which have damaged cricket,” Warner wrote.

“I apologise for my part and take responsibility for it.’’

It is this final sentence – or at least the first five words of it – which has created immense concern at Cricket Australia.

When Warner said he apologised “for my part’’ they started to worry that Warner could name names who have not already been identified.

Their best case scenario was for Warner to man up and take responsibility for the whole thing.

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For hatching the plan. For asking Cameron Bancroft to do it. For even telling him how to do it.

But he didn’t. When he said “my part’’ the suspicion was there were other parts and the worry is they will stretch further than Bancroft and Steve Smith.

Smith and Bancroft have already been named and banned, head coach Darren Lehmann has denied involvement but quit, but the involvement of any other players remains a vexed mystery.

A CA investigation (yes, I know, Caesar investigating Caesar) found all other players were in the clear but no-one knows the full story like Warner.

Will he incriminate others or just take a bullet?

And if he appeals his sentence will he go down firing at his appeal hearing and blow up the whole show?

Warner and wife Candice arrive home with their daughters. (AFP PHOTO / PETER PARKS)

It is easy to say the Warner, in national interests, should hold his tongue but there has been enough of that already.

Australian fans want him to tell the truth.

If other players or coaches knew of the scandal he must identify who they were.

And what of the wider culture of ball tampering.

Barring the press conference being hijacked as Steve Smith’s was with some faceless imbecile from a low rent FM radio show, there is a key question that needs to be asked.

It is “David, given that you taught Bancroft how to use sandpaper on the ball, please tell us how, when and why you developed this technique ... obviously there’s no need to do it in the dressing room and training because the balls you use in a game cannot be accessed off the field. So did you develop it in the middle?’’

The truth can set Warner free. This is not a time for protecting anyone.

It is time to lance a boil, name names, face the music.

Nothing less than a full confession will suffice.

Originally published as Australian ball-tampering scandal: Cricket Australia’s biggest fear