David Warner BOMBSHELL: Execs on the hook

David Warner has been engaged in a battle of wills with Cricket Australia executives as he sought to have a lifetime captaincy ban overturned.

Warner surrendered his bid recently, but it is clear this scandal is not over.

David Warner bombshell dropped

Warner was painted as the instigator of the sandpaper plot that blew up Australian cricket.

However, Warner’s agent says that when the truth comes out it will lead many to question the witchhunt against his client.

“When the truth comes out, everybody is going to turn around and say, ‘Well, why was David Warner picked upon?’,” James Erskine told sports broadcaster SEN.

Plot hatched after Hobart humiliation

Erskine asserts that the plot was hatched in Hobart during South Africa’s previous tour to Australia.

“Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart and basically were berating the team for losing… and Warner said ‘we’ve got to reverse-swing the ball’.

“‘The only way we can reverse-swing the ball is by tampering with it.'”

“And they were told to do it,” Erskine claimed

Another unnamed official alleges that the team were only told that they are paid to win and not just to play, sternly refuting any claims that they were encouraged to cheat.

Warner has consistently cut a figure unhappy with how the entire debacle has played out although he could just as easily have the same attitude even if the plot had its sole genesis with him.

His previous flare-ups in the series, including a clash with a fan at Newlands and Quinton de Kock in the stares leading to the changerooms at Kingsmead, made him an easy scapegoat if that is what has panned out.

Warner and captain at the time Steve Smith both received heavier sanctions that the ball tamperer himself, Cameron Bancroft.

However, Bancroft’s career has clearly suffered the greatest harm as he has been unable to win back his place in the team and continues to be the subject of derision all over the cricketing world.

There will be more to come on this story but for now all we have to go on is hearsay and allegations.