Cricket 2022: David Warner unaware of manager’s plan to air explosive ball tampering claims

There’s no doubt manager James Erskine has David Warner’s best interests at heart – but why did he go “off the reservation” with his stunning radio interview? Here’s the latest.

David Warner’s bombshell statement about withdrawing from his leadership ban review on Test eve was done in consultation with his lawyers and the Australian Cricketers Association, but not his manager James Erskine.

A gap appears to have developed in the dynamic of Warner and Erskine’s working relationship, with cricket sources adamant Erskine went “off the reservation” with his explosive claims on SEN Radio on Thursday that players were “told to tamper” in a Hobart dressing room in 2016.

There’s a perception that by being his manager, Erskine was doing Warner’s bidding in his stunning interview on SEN, but News Corp has been told by numerous cricketing sources that Erskine spoke without Warner’s knowledge or consent.

Erskine has Warner’s best interests at heart and News Corp is not suggesting any issue exists between the pair, but the fact is it’s one of Erskine’s directors Tom Matson, and not Erskine himself who is Warner’s day-to-day manager (albeit they work alongside each other at the same company).

David Warner’s manager wasn’t aware of his plan to quit the leadership ban review and Warner didn’t know about James Erskine’s plan to air explosive claims. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

Warner’s shock “public lynching” statement that he was pulling out of the independent process to review his lifetime leadership ban, would have come as a shock to his management because it was written and executed without their input.

It was only Warner’s lawyers and the Australian Cricketers Association via their boss Todd Greenberg who were involved.

Erskine’s advice to his client to remain silent in the years’ following the Cape Town incident has served Warner extremely well and arguably greatly strengthened Warner’s public position amid all the conjecture that still exists over what happened in 2018.

But many in the game feel Erskine contradicted his own advice in his SEN interview where he dug up skeletons from the ball tampering scandal.

“He (Warner) has shut up, he protected Cricket Australia, he protected his fellow players on my advice, because at the end of the day no one wanted to hear any more of it and he’s got on playing cricket,” said Erskine.

But Erskine continued, fuelled by the frustration he clearly feels towards Cricket Australia for what Warner has gone through, making comments which have reverberated through the game.

“The truth will come out,” Erskine said.

“You’d have to be a blind black labrador to not realise that there was far more than three people (Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft) involved in this thing.

“There’s lots of people … there’s two cricketers at the time that said, why don’t we just put our hands up and tell the truth, they can’t fire all of us.

“That’s what’s happened.

David Warner after being dismissed by Alzarri Joseph on day 1 of the Adelaide Test. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

“ … (Two officials) in the changing room in Hobart (in 2016) were basically berating the team for losing to South Africa.

“Warner said, ‘we’ve got to reverse swing the ball. And the only way we can reverse swing the ball is basically by tampering with it’ – so they were told to do it.”

Warner and his family and other Australian team members were hounded by television cameras on Friday morning in Adelaide, in part due to the fallout from Erskine’s comments which were met with vehement denials from multiple officials from Cricket Australia at the time.

“They were really unhelpful and I think unfounded comments,” said CA chief Nick Hockley on SEN.

“I think that’s totally counter to the objective of the process and I think it’s precisely what David was hoping would not happen when he applied for it to be done in private.

“ … Some of the comments that I think have added to this situation have clearly not been his (Warner’s) own, they’ve been via representatives. So I’m really keen to see how he’s going and how he’s feeling following his decision to withdraw.”

Greenberg also responded to Erskine’s comments.

“I heard those comments from James Erskine yesterday, I can’t speak to any of that. I don’t know to be fair. I know James is a very passionate advocate for those he represents … he’s got every right to be upset at how that matter was handled,” said Greenberg on SEN.

“I don’t personally think it’s helpful for any of us to look backwards. I think we’ve done that already way too much … that’s probably been lost in the last 24 hours and I hope we can start looking forward rather than backwards.”