David Warner has broken eight years of silence on Australian cricket's sandpaper scandal, backing Usman Khawaja's claim that the whole team knew about the plan to tamper with the ball as "100 per cent accurate".

Warner, who was vice-captain on the 2018 tour of South Africa, posted a video on Instagram in which he thanked Khawaja for coming forward and dismissed suggestions that the revelations were designed to sell Khawaja's autobiography, Sabr.

"Uzzy, I throw my full support behind you. I thank you for what you've done. It's 100 per cent accurate, what you've said. Now everyone knows the truth, it's out there," Warner said.

What Khawaja claimed

Khawaja, writing in his autobiography and in extracts published by the Sydney Morning Herald, said knowledge of the plan went far beyond the three players who were punished. He said the whole team knew, and that open discussions about roughing up the ball had begun in the second Test at Port Elizabeth, one match before the Cape Town Test where Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera with sandpaper.

"It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us," Khawaja told Nine newspapers, according to reports of his account.

His version contradicts a joint statement issued in 2021 by Australia's bowling quartet of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, who denied any prior knowledge of the ball being tampered with. The four bowlers have not commented on Khawaja's latest claims.

Warner attacks the investigation

Warner also turned on Cricket Australia's investigation into the incident, calling the process rushed and flawed. He said Khawaja had not been interviewed despite sitting next to Bancroft throughout the Cape Town Test.

"This whole interview process was rushed and botched. Uzzy was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft. Uzzy was not interviewed. How is that a thorough investigation? It baffles me," Warner said.

He said he had taken a couple of days before speaking so he could talk to his daughters first and explain what had happened, and that reopening the incident was painful for his family as well as for Steve Smith and Bancroft. But he said he believed the truth needed to come out.

"We're not here to point fingers and we're not opening our wounds. It's about accountability, transparency, ensuring that the truth is properly examined," he added.

The 2018 bans

The scandal, in the third Test against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town in March 2018, remains one of the darkest chapters in Australian cricket. Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper on the ball, and Cricket Australia's investigation named Warner as the player who conceived the plan.

Warner and captain Steve Smith were each banned for 12 months from international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft received a nine-month suspension. Warner was also banned for life from holding any leadership or captaincy position in Australian cricket, although that ban was lifted in 2024 by an independent review panel.

Khawaja had also expressed shock at not being interviewed during the investigation, despite his seat beside Bancroft. Warner echoed that point, saying the interview process had failed to speak to a player at the centre of the dressing room.

Cricket Australia stands by its findings

Cricket Australia has said it remains comfortable with the findings of its integrity process and that a fresh investigation is not being considered. In a statement issued after Khawaja's claims, it said all relevant information presented to it had been properly considered.

The renewed row comes on the eve of the home summer. Australia's white-ball series against England begins on Friday with the first of three one-day internationals in Perth, and the claims are likely to follow the team into that series.

For Warner, who retired from international cricket in 2024 and is currently playing in the Nepal Premier League, the video was his first public comment on the subject in eight years. "It's been eight years since I spoke on this topic," he said. "People wanted to know it. You've come out and said it."