James Erskine, the manager of David Warner, asserted that "many more" than three persons were engaged in the Sandpaper incident in Cape Town in 2018. He also stated that anonymous officials had authorised players to tamper with the ball when Australia and South Africa played in Hobart in 2016.
After Warner withdrew his request to have his permanent leadership ban lifted in a lengthy statement on Wednesday owing to dissatisfaction with the format of the public hearing process, the drama surrounding his leadership ban continued. He batted first for Australia against the West Indies in the second Test at Adelaide Oval, scoring 21 runs off of 29 balls.
Off the field, however, Erskine made some shocking claims on the SEN 1170 Afternoons radio show, claiming that Australian players were given permission to tamper with the ball following a historic defeat to South Africa in which the hosts were dismissed for just 85 runs in the first innings.
There are many individuals, and two cricket players held up their hands and said, "Why don't we all just speak the truth, they can't fire us all," which is what happened. "The truth will come out, let me tell you that," he remarked.
"Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart and basically were berating the team for losing against South Africa (in 2016) 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. I'm completely against it, I think tampering with ball 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."
"I'm not suggesting that's right because I don't think you should tamper with the ball. This was blown out of all proportion, partly because of the Prime Minister, but partly for the total reaction of the general public."
It's gotten to the point where three people have been fully victimised above everyone else, and it's not fair, he said, adding that he completely agrees that it wasn't a good thing.
Steve Smith, the Australian captain at the time, received a yearlong suspension and a further year in which he could not hold any leadership responsibilities while Warner was on a permanent leadership ban. Australia's current second Test match against the West Indies is being captained by Smith.
"The Prime Minister came out, (at the time), (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."
"You'd have to be a blind black Labrador, there was far more than three people involved in this thing, they all got canning and David Warner was completely villainised. 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."
"Why Cricket Australia couldn't have done a very sensible thing and said listen, it's not legal that someone doesn't have a right of appeal. 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," added Erskine.