David Warner's manager opens up about ball tampering investigation

David Warner's manager James Erskine lashed out at Cricket Australia (CA) on Monday, saying the ball-tampering investigation was a "joke" and the three players – Warner, Steven Smith, and Cameron Bancroft – who were punished for the same were treated in a "despicable" manner.

While Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension by CA for executing the ball-tampering during the Cape Town Test in March 2018, Smith and Warner being the leaders of the side were slapped with a year's ban. It was revealed later that while then-captain Smith had not done anything to stop the infamous tactic from being employed, his deputy Warner had instructed Bancroft to tamper the ball.

In an interview with Sydney Morning Herard, Erskine said that the Australian cricket board did not interview all the players after Bancroft was caught on the big screen tampering with the ball in South Africa.

"The report that was done, they didn't interview all the players. The whole thing was so badly handled, it was a joke. But eventually, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, will come out and I know the whole truth. But it doesn't serve any purpose because the Australian public over a period of time got to dislike the Australian team because they didn't behave particularly well.

There is absolutely no doubt that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were treated despicably. The fact of the matter is they did the wrong thing but the punishment didn't fit the crime. I think if one or two of those players had taken legal action they would have won because of what the truth was," Erskine told the Sydney Morning Herald.

After Bancroft recently admitted that the bowlers were also aware of the ball-tampering, former Australian skipper Michael Clarke said that it was not surprising.

"What's the surprise? That more than three people knew? I don't think anybody who has played the game of cricket or knows a little bit about cricket, would know that in a team like that, at the highest level, when the ball is such an important part of the game. If you'd played the game of cricket, you would know more than three people know what was going on in there. The problem Cricket Australia has is the fact they've tried to sweep it under the carpet and not come out and tell the full story.

You don't have to have played cricket at the highest level. If you know anything about the game of cricket, you know on that day, on that field, what went down, more than three people had to know about it. Impossible not to… That's why there's going to be finger-pointing until, I think until someone writes their book and tells the complete, honest truth. It will continue because it hasn't been finished, so much is left unsaid from the players and even what happened with staff," Clarke told Sky Sports' Big Sports Breakfast.