David Warner’s Agent Launches New Ashes Cheating Claims To Plunge Australian Cricket Into Crisis Again

David Warner‘s agent James Erskine has ignited the “Sandpapergate” scandal by claiming that Australia tampered with the ball during their 2017–18 home Test series against England, just six months before the next Ashes.   

In addition, James Erskine claims that Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft, and the opener were not the only ones involved in the plan to tamper with the ball during Australia’s Test match against South Africa in Cape Town in March 2018.

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The Sandpaper Gate Saga

Warner and Smith received year-long bans for their part in the conspiracy, while Bancroft was prohibited from playing for nine months.

David Warner was also given a lifetime captaincy ban by Cricket Australia (CA), which he had attempted to overturn but this week abandoned after believing he would be put to a show trial during the hearing to decide the outcome of his appeal. 

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Erskine claimed that two senior CA executives gave the players permission to start tampering with the ball after the team had been humiliated by South Africa in Hobart in November 2016. Although Australia has always maintained that Cape Town was an isolated incident, it also seemed to confirm the suspicions of England’s players involved in that 2017–18 Ashes series. 

Australia Reversed The Ball In Conditions You Don’t Expect The Ball To Reverse: Stuart Broad

England’s players suspected Australia cheated during the 2017-18 Ashes as well. Speaking the day after the scandal broke in 2018, Stuart Broad said:

“Look at the Ashes series we’ve just played. In virtually all of those Test matches they reverse-swung the ball, sometimes, in conditions that you wouldn’t expect the ball to reverse. So I don’t understand why they’ve changed their method for this one game.” 

Struggling David Warner To Spill Beans If Not Selected For Ashes?

It’s impossible to say because it may all depend on whether Warner is in the squad. The opener hasn’t scored a Test hundred in almost three years and with a tour of India coming up and his terrible record in England, he may be dropped before the Ashes start in June.

If that occurs, may he ruin the entire series by spilling the beans on everything that took place in Cape Town? It’s feasible. 

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