After David Warner’s manager James Erskine made explosive new ball tampering claims, Australian cricket legend Ian Healy revealed he was in the “dressing room that day.”
On Wednesday, Warner issued a statement on Instagram revealing that he had withdrawn his efforts to overturn his leadership ban, accusing the review panel of attempting to create a “public lynching.”
Later, Erskine stated that he believes more players were involved in the 2018 ball tampering scandal in South Africa, before referring to an incident that occurred following the 2016 Hobart Test against the Proteas.
“Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart (in 2016) and basically were berating the team for losing against South Africa,”
Erskine said onSEN1170.
Moreover, he accused CA of being involved in a 2016 incident involving Australia and South Africa in the Hobart Test match involving two senior executives being present in the dressing room. Warner’s manager revealed that two senior former Australian players were dissatisfied with the team’s defeat to South Africa and inability to get the ball to swing.
Healy explained that he and Mark Taylor entered the dressing room after the loss to South Africa to simply support the players.
“We went in that day, and it would’ve happened that day where they were spoken to by unnamed people and said ‘we don’t pay you to do anything but win’ and that was the attitude that came out, which wasn’t good.”
Erskine accused CA officials of also being involved in ball-tampering, saying “you’d have to be a blind black Labrador” to believe only Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft, and Warner were involved. Healy, on the other hand, stated that he is unaware of any of Erskine’s accusations.
“I don’t know of any other incidents that James has come out and said so David has kept that well in-house, but now James has opened his mouth. That’s the bombshell that Cricket Australia didn’t want, and this independent panel should have been behind closed doors sorting out, ”
Healy said.
