Warner on the warpath as he attacks assistant coach’s sandpaper account

David Warner has claimed Graeme Hick questioned Usman Khawaja’s assertion the whole team was aware of the ball-tampering plot because the former batting coach was out of favour with the side.

Hick on Tuesday told this masthead he had no prior knowledge of Australia’s plans to use sandpaper during the 2018 tour of South Africa, slamming Khawaja’s claims the entire touring party knew as “absolutely false”.

Warner responded overnight on social media to Hick’s comments. He claimed Hick’s recollection of the events leading into the Cape Town Test was affected by the team’s desire to install Michael Di Venuto into his role as Australia’s batting coach.

Hick was let go by Cricket Australia in June 2020 as part of the organisation’s austerity measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Di Venuto returned as the team’s batting coach in July 2021.

Warner’s comment did not challenge Hick’s account, but questioned his standing among the players.

“Let’s get the facts straight. Graeme Hick was only appointed because Cricket Australia was unwilling to pay Michael Di Venuto what he deserved,” Warner wrote on social media platform X in reply to a post by the Wide World of Sports account.

“As players, we valued Michael so highly that we even offered to contribute from our own salaries to retain him. These discussions were taking place during the New Zealand tour [in 2017]. That alone speaks volumes about how highly we regarded him and how determined we were to keep him involved. Adds to why Graeme has spoken!!”

Hick declined to comment when contacted by this masthead on Thursday morning to respond to Warner’s remarks.

Hick is the second member of Australia’s coaching staff from the tour to contest Khawaja’s claim in his memoir Sabr that the whole touring party was aware of the plan to use sandpaper in Cape Town. Khawaja also alleged sandpaper was used in the second Test at Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqberha.

“I have seen the various statements around the coaches and I’m very disappointed with the broad nature of them,” Hick told this masthead on Thursday.

“Khawaja puts it simply: ‘It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.’ To me what Khawaja is implying here is absolutely false.

“In regard to any discussions around the ball tampering in Port Elizabeth or Cape Town that took place, I will say in true honesty that I did not hear or know anything!!

“My first knowledge of all this was, like many, when it appeared on the big screen in Cape Town as I was sat on the outside balcony at the time.”

Khawaja also claimed a member of the coaching staff had encouraged Bancroft to use sandpaper during an interval of the Cape Town Test. Lehmann and Hick have now both denied they were involved.

More to come