Warner’s manager claims CA officials told players to tamper with the ball

David Warner’s manager, James Erskine, has claimed players were encouraged by Cricket Australia officials to tamper with the ball in the wake of their loss to South Africa in the 2016 Hobart Test.

Speaking on SEN Radio on Thursday, Erskine also repeated claims that other players had been involved in the 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering scandal that resulted in lengthy bans for Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and Warner.

“Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart [in 2016] and basically were berating the team for losing against South Africa – and Warner said that we’ve got to reverse swing the ball and the only way we can reverse swing the ball is basically by tampering with it – and so they were told to do it,” Erskine said on radio.

“I’m completely against it – I think tampering with balls is a joke, but it has gone on for centuries. Everybody has been fiddling around with balls and the penalty at the time by the ICC was a one-match ban.

“You’d have to be a blind, black Labrador [to not see] there were far more than three people involved in this thing. They all got a caning and David Warner was completely villainised.”

Contacted by the Herald and The Age, Erskine refused to say who the executives he was referring to were, adding: “I’m not going to confirm or tell you who it was, that’s not my job.”

David Warner bats on day one of the second test. He was out for 21 in the first session.Credit: Getty Images

But three people who had been in the Hobart dressing-rooms and who spoke to the Herald and The Age on the condition of anonymity disputed Erskine’s versions of events, saying the players had not been encouraged to tamper with the ball.

Erskine also attacked CA for its handling of the appeal process for Warner’s captaincy ban, saying he had been the victim of “injustice at its greatest level”.

Warner decided on Wednesday that he would not pursue his right of appeal because the independent panel, appointed by CA to oversee the review of his ban, wanted to hold public hearings before making its decision.

Erskine said Warner’s decision had spared CA from embarrassment and that Warner’s family had suffered for years after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, with his wife Candice recounting the abuse aimed at the family and their three children earlier on Thursday.

“I think he’s fed up with the process, the trauma [from] that the original decision in South Africa, to his family and Candice, she lost a baby because of it,” Erskine said.

“I think it’s odd, I don’t quite understand the process myself. They [the review panel] want this open court on the appeal.

“When you get banned for life with no appeal, I don’t think that can be legal, you can murder 25 people and get an appeal, and go have a second trial.

“The prime minister [Malcolm Turnbull] came out and said this is a disgrace and whatever, I think he regrets those comments now, Cricket Australia had the whole process, the [Iain] Roy report was done in four days.

Warner and Smith were suspended from playing for 12 months for their part in the ball-tampering scandal of 2018, while Bancroft, who was caught with sandpaper on the field, was given a nine-month suspension.

Smith, who was punished for failing to stop the ball-tampering, was told he would not be able to captain Australia for at least two years, and has since been reappointed as Test vice-captain to Pat Cummins, while Warner was handed a lifetime leadership ban.

An investigation led by CA’s then head of integrity Iain Roy concluded that only this trio had prior knowledge of Australia’s ball tampering in Cape Town.

Erskine also said Warner had much more he could reveal on the scandal but had instead focused on his cricket.

“He 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,” Erskine said.

“It’s just absurd, why should he have to go through that, he has done everything he possibly could for Cricket Australia and for his team, and now he’s being treated like this … this is injustice at its greatest level.”

Former Test wicketkeeper Ian Healy also told SEN that he believed Warner’s decision to withdraw had “saved cricket”, and he wanted the independent panel to explain its reasons.

“He has saved cricket here,” Healy said on Thursday. “That panel were going to air cricket’s problems. Why would they do that? Every other aspect of their negotiations, with the Australian Cricketers Association for example, are endeavouring to stay behind closed doors.

“Get the job done, no matter what it takes, behind closed doors. I agree with David Warner that it doesn’t need to be in public.”

Earlier on Thursday, Warner’s wife, Candice, recounted the “abuse” her three daughters had faced, and questioned the need for a public hearing.

Speaking on Triple M on Thursday morning, Candice said: ”It’s still raw, we go to cricket so often watching David play and there’s always people yelling things out at the crowd.”

Candice also challenged the timing of the hearing, which was scheduled for the middle of the Test summer.

“Our family’s already suffered and endured so much pain. Why do it now? What’s it going to achieve? This was all supposed to be done on Wednesday next week, apparently. Why? For the good of who? For the good of us? No. For the good of the cricket team? No. Who’s benefiting from this?”

Cricket Australia had confirmed its support for a private hearing, describing David as a highly regarded member of the Australian team.

“We are disappointed with this outcome as our intention was to give David the opportunity to demonstrate why his lifetime leadership ban should be varied at an independent hearing and we amended our code of conduct accordingly,” a spokesperson said on Wednesday night.

“We supported David’s wish for these discussions to be heard behind closed doors and respect his decision to withdraw his application.”

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