David Warner autobiography: Why cricket star won’t expose Australian cricket - yet

Only one man knows the full story of Sandpapergate - but David Warner is set to spare Australian cricket the brutal ball-tampering expose it has feared in a new autobiography.

David Warner has signed up to do an autobiography but his manager believes he will spare Australian cricket the brutal ball-tampering expose it has feared for four years.

Warner’s manager James Erskine has confirmed Warner quietly signed a book deal some years ago but the work will not be published until after his retirement.

Warner was banned from playing for a year and from leadership roles for life – the sentence is currently under review – after he was found guilty of being the architect of the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in 2018.

From the time the bans were handed down there was a feeling Warner, then captain Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were not the only ones who knew about the plan and the blame should have been spread more widely.

Cricket Australia has always feared Warner might “blow up the building’’ in retirement and identify other people who knew of the ball-tampering plan.

David Warner will maintain his silence over ‘sandpapergate’ Picture: Matt Roberts/Getty Images

Warner has refused to deep dive into the ball-tampering affair since he was banned and Erskine feels the silence strategy has been rewarded.

“When he retires from cricket he will have 30 years of his working life left,’’ Erskine said. “You want to be respected. It takes a big man to not say a word and keep your mouth shut. So he is not going to (blow up the building in a book).

“I don’t think he wants to be sensationalistic about it – he just wants to be matter of fact.

“My advice to him from the time I met him was to keep quiet and carry on playing cricket and that was the best advice. Irrespective of who was right or wrong, the Australian public don’t want a bar of it. They are fed up with it. They did not like that Australian team (of 2018). They were embarrassed by the way they behaved. People are starting to like the Australian team again.

“There was a good list of people (publishers) who wanted to do it. We did a book deal some years ago but he will not do it until he finishes cricket.’’

Erskine said he felt Warner deserved to have the ban lifted.

“I think it would be very unfair if they didn’t relinquish the ban. Then there is the decision on whether he will be captain of the T20 team after the World Cup. He has a cricket brain similar to Warnie and he’s ruthless.’’

Originally published as David Warner autobiography: Why cricket star won’t expose Australian cricket - yet