David Warner’s manager claims cricket officials TOLD stars tampered with the ball for Sandpapergate

Australian cricket star David Warner’s manager has made the stunning allegation that cricket officials told players to tamper with the ball before the Sandpapergate scandal that rocked the sport in 2018.

Then-captain Steve Smith, Warner and bowler Cameron Bancroft were all handed heavy penalties over the episode during the Third Test against South Africa in Cape Town where Bancroft roughened one side of the ball with sandpaper.

A day after Warner withdrew his insistence that his lifelong captaincy be lifted, his manager James Erskine accused cricket officials of directing players to break one of the sport’s cardinal rules.

He claimed the shocking development came after the Aussies suffered a heavy loss to South Africa in a Test match in Hobart in 2016.

Erskine claimed that the officials ‘berated the team for losing to South Africa’ after the Test.

“Warner said, ‘We have to swing the ball in the opposite direction. The only way we can swing the ball in the opposite direction is to mess with it’ — and they were told to do it,” Erskine recalled.SEN radioon Thursday.

At no point did Erskine state that the allegedly involved officials were from Cricket Australia.

The manager also denounced the governing body’s handling of the scandal when it first erupted, claiming that the investigation was rushed and that his client had been scapegoated for the affair.

“When the truth comes out, everyone will turn around and say, why was David Warner bullied?” he said.

‘Cricket Australia had the whole process, the [Iain] Roy’s report was ready in four days.

“You should be a blind black labrador, there were way more than three people involved in this thing. They were all caned and David Warner was completely villainous.

“He kept his mouth shut, he protected Cricket Australia, on my advice he protected his fellow players because in the end nobody wanted to hear about it and he is going to play cricket.”

On Wednesday, Warner withdrew his bid to have his lifetime captaincy lifted, accusing the independent panel leading the review of seeking to publicly lynch him.

In an explosive development on the eve of the Adelaide Test, Warner also claimed that the counsel assisting the assessment made abusive and unhelpful comments about him during the first trial.

In a lengthy 793-word statement posted to his Instagram page, Warner revealed that he had applied to have his leadership ban lifted a fortnight ago.

Believing that Cricket Australia’s review would focus more on its own growth since the saga of ball tampering in 2018, Warner said he was dismayed when told the review would include cross-examination on the matter.

Cricket Australia have since confirmed they support the 36-year-old’s push to change that process, but both were told on Wednesday by the independent panel of code of conduct commissioners that they were firm on the matter.

Warner’s wife Candice burst into tears on live radio on Thursday as she revealed the toll the Sandpapergate saga and lifelong leadership ban have taken on their family.

“We live it day by day, that pain doesn’t go away. It’s still raw,” she continued Triple M’s Summer Breakfast Show.

‘We go to the cricket so often and there are always people shouting things and my daughters proudly wear their father’s name on their backs.

“The fact that my daughters have to take advantage of incidents that happened in the past is not fair.

‘David always puts family first, and he’s fiercely protective of me and the three girls… cricket isn’t everything. It’s what he does, but it doesn’t define him.

“The fact that there was a lack of player welfare and no welfare for David and our family speaks volumes.

“It’s been on our minds for so long and I’m pretty sure everyone doesn’t want to keep talking about it… David has had enough and the team has had enough.”