David Warner’s manager James Erskine has slammed Cricket Australia (CA) for treating Warner, Steve Smith, and Cameron Bancroft ‘despicably’ during the investigation of the ball-tampering episode. He went on to say that these players didn’t deserve such severe punishment for their involvement in the sandpaper saga of Cape Town Test 2018.

Steve Smith and David Warner were handed a one-year suspension from all cricketing activities while Cameron Bancroft was sidelined for nine months. Furthermore, Warner was handed a lifetime suspension for leading any CA affiliated team while Smith had to serve a one-year cooldown period before being able to lead a team again.

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The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Erskine saying “The report that was done, they (CA) 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.”

That infamous ball-tampering saga brought Australia’s win-at-all-cost attitude under the scanner.

“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 added.

The sandpaper gate once again came into headlines after Bancroft gave an interview to The Guardian. In that interview, he mentioned that it’s ‘self-explanatory’ that bowlers were aware that the ball was being tampered with for their use.

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In the aftermath of this revelation by him, CA has stated that they are open to re-investigate the whole episode.