‘The truth will eventually come out’: Warner reflects on Sandpapergate on eve of final Test

When David Warner walked through Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on March 28, 2018, the only people interested in talking to him were photographers and priests.

The snappers were there en masse because Warner had been revealed as the chief protagonist in the ball-tampering incident from the Test at Newlands in Cape Town. Cricket Australia had suspended him from first-class cricket for a year and banned him from ever being captain again.

But the priests were there to offer him support.

“The first eight or nine people when I walked through the airport were priests handing me cards from their churches,” Warner recalls. “It brought a tear to my eye. It was emotional. I appreciated it. I didn’t feel like I had that many people supporting me.”

A few weeks later, he and wife Candice whisked their two daughters, Ivy Mae and Indi Rae, to Singapore to escape the glare of Sydney.

“There was a church convention and the people from Australia who knew us said, ‘When you’re back in Sydney, come to our church’. I thought, ‘Someone is telling me something here’. This was a message from God.”

David Warner at the SCG on Monday.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

Some Australian cricket fans — and the occasional retired fast bowler — haven’t been so ready to forgive.

When Warner walks onto the SCG on Wednesday for his final Test, those in the stands or watching at home will have wildly different aspirations for the veteran opener: a glorious final century before his home crowd — or an ignominious pair.

There’s no in-between with Warner. Apart from the early years of his career as a T20 specialist, when he became the first player since 1877 to represent Australia without having played any first-class cricket, he’s never been universally loved. What happened in Newlands only widened the gap.

Nevertheless, it’s been difficult to outright condemn him because we still don’t know, entirely, what went down before that Test and in the Australian dressing-room in the weeks and months that preceded it.

David Warner and his family arrive back in Sydney after the Cape Town ball-tampering affair in 2018.Credit: Getty

The assumption is Warner will tell his side of the story in a tell-all autobiography when he retires from all three forms of the game. His manager, James Erskine, confirmed to this masthead a book deal was in place but gave no indication of a release date.

Warner’s announcement on Monday morning that he was also retiring from one-day cricket means he’s getting closer to the exit door.

Whether Warner bares his soul in a meaty tome is unclear. He suggests that people won’t believe his version no matter what he says and hopes others involved will reveal the truth instead.

“Will I have something to say?” Warner asks. “One day, the truth will eventually come out. It probably won’t come out from me. What has more merit: me saying it or someone who was there? That will have more credit and more meaning. Until that happens, it is what it is. I am at peace with it. I put my hand up, but people will still comment. I’ve always said the truth sets you free. The truth that we all talk about.”

David Warner with his wife Candice and their children at the SCG on Monday.Credit: Steven Siewert

He won’t confirm if that “truth” involves other players and officials outside Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, both of whom were also sanctioned for their roles.

“The whole thing was so messed up,” Warner continues. “There were so many things behind the scenes, underneath, on top, so it’s not just black and white. There’s so much to it, and it’s not just one person’s story. It’s a lot of people’s stories. How many people got involved in it as well. I hear stories about it now, and I’m like, ‘How did you hear about that? I don’t even know that’.

“You don’t know who was on your side, who wasn’t. Whose agendas were what. I’m always tarnished with it. If I comment on it, I get my say and people might change their opinion. I’ve copped so much of it. People will look at it and say, ‘Dave Warner did it because Cameron Bancroft said Dave Warner told him to do it.’ That’s their version of events. So I’ve just learned to cop it.”

His punishment allowed Warner to fall in love with the game again. He returned to grade cricket with Randwick-Petersham and, apart from a few sledges from rival players, it reminded him why he played.

David Warner and Steve Smith playing grade cricket during their suspensions in 2018.Credit: Getty

“When you’re playing for Australia, you’re so detached from it all — you forget,” he says. “You forget what you had to do on a Thursday afternoon when you covered the wicket. The volunteers in the canteen, mixing your own drinks … you forget all that. You lose that part of you. It made me realise then why [the ball-tampering incident] had such an impact.”

Did he ever consider walking away from international cricket?

“You always have that in the back of your mind,” he says. “You negatively think, ‘Nobody wants me to come back. If I come back to work, what are these people going to think about it?’ But I quickly switched out of that.”

Serving a year-long suspension and investing his time in grassroots cricket didn’t halt the criticism. The latest missive came from Warner’s former teammate Mitchell Johnson, who accused him of failing to “own” his part in the ball-tampering controversy.

“People keep asking me for comment,” Warner shrugs. “I woke up one day and there was a headline and a story. It’s his opinion, he writes a column, there’s nothing for me to say.”

He adds that he’s never been abused, or even criticised, by a member of the public. He and Candice will drop into their local pub in Sydney’s east and people are surprised when they see them.

“I’ve never had one negative comment,” Warner says. “When people meet us and they say, ‘Oh, we didn’t know you were like this’. People judge you based on what they read and see. We’re just everyday people.”

Then Warner tells you something you didn’t see coming: he doesn’t just go to the pub but takes his online trolls with him.

“I’ve always said to people, ‘If you’re going to pot shot me on Twitter behind a keyboard, come and have a beer,’” he says. “I’ve done that with some people before and they’ve been taken aback by it. I speak to them on a weekly basis. I’ve reached out to a few people in England and had beers with them. It’s important to reach out to people who are abusive because you want to know why.

“People have their right to an opinion, but if you get to understand someone and know them, it gives them an opportunity to write what they want to write without being negative towards the person themselves. As a person, you should never have that negative talk about them when you don’t know them or understand them.

“What gives you the right to abuse me — and what have I done that you don’t like?”

TOMORROW: How Warner revolutionised batting