David Warner’s manager claims players given permission to ball-tamper in 2016

David Warner’s manager has sensationally claimed players were given permission to tamper with the ball by unnamed officials some 16 months before the Cape Town scandal in 2018.

The drama surrounding Warner’s leadership ban continued on Thursday after Warner revoked his bid to have his sanction lifted due to frustration over the public nature of the process.

The opening batsman returned to the field on Thursday, batting with aggression to notch up 21 from 29 balls against the West Indies.

Warner cut, drove and cover-drove Alzarri Joseph for three boundaries in one over before being caught behind off the West Indies quick in the first session of the match.

Off the field, Warner’s manager, James Erskine, suggested in an interview on SEN that players had been given approval to tamper with the ball after a 2016 flogging from South Africa in Hobart.

South African cricketer Faf du Plessis was later charged with applying saliva to the ball with a mint in his mouth as Australia were bowled out for 85 in the first innings.

“Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart and basically were berating the team for losing against South Africa,” Erskine said on SEN.

“Warner said we’ve got to reverse-swing the ball. And the only way we can reverse-swing the ball is by tampering with it. And so they were told to do it.”

Erskine also claimed that one day the truth would come out over the ball-tampering saga in Cape Town, and people would believe Warner had been unfairly picked on.

“There was far more than three people involved in this thing, they all got a caning and David Warner was completely villainised,” Erskine said.

“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.

“This is injustice at its greatest level.”

Cricket Australia is yet to comment on the latest allegations.

Erskine’s comments came as questions continued to be raised over how CA lost control of their own code of conduct changes.

Warner had been pushing since February to have his leadership ban reviewed, before the governing body initiated a change to its code of conduct two months ago.

That change was finalised last month, allowing Warner to lodge an application to have his lifetime ban reviewed based on his personal growth since then and contrition.

CA have confirmed they had supported Warner’s request for the independent panel to hold the hearing behind closed doors.

But both they and Warner were told on Wednesday that would not be the case – with the panel of three independent code of conduct commissioners able to set their own parameters.

“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 CA spokesperson said.

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

In a lengthy statement on Instagram on Wednesday, Warner claimed the panel had not given consideration to the welfare of his family or teammates, the opener suggesting the hearing would be akin to a public lynching.

He also suggested counsel assisting the panel, who Warner said had since been removed, had made “offensive and unhelpful comments” about him.

Warner’s wife, Candice, also hit out at the process on Thursday.

“The fact that my daughters have to cop abuse because of incidents that have happened in the past is not fair,” she told Triple M radio.

“It’s still raw, we go to cricket so often watching David play and there’s always people yelling things out at the crowd. Our family’s already suffered and endured so much pain. Why do it now? What’s it going to achieve?”