"Two executives" laid the foundations for the infamous 2018 ball-tampering scandal that shook Australian cricket, batsman David Warner's manager claimed Thursday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The incident involved an attempt by Australia to illegally alter the surface of the ball with sandpaper to gain an advantage against South African batsmen during a Test match in Cape Town, which was caught on camera.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Warner was cast as the key villain in the scandal -- dubbed "Sandpaper-gate" -- having conspired with then-skipper Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Like Warner, Smith was banned from playing for a year and from captaining Australia, but his punishment lasted two years while Warner's was indefinite.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"When the truth comes out, everybody is going to turn around and say, 'Well, why was David Warner picked upon?'," his manager James Erskine told sports broadcaster SEN, a day after the opener dropped his bid to have the lifetime leadership ban lifted.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"The truth will come out, let me tell you."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Erskine said it was naive to think more people did not know what was going on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the interview, he referenced an incident after a 2016 Test match in Hobart that Australia lost heavily to South Africa, suggesting it laid the foundations for what happened two years later in Cape Town.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart and basically were berating the team for losing... and Warner said 'we've got to reverse-swing the ball'.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"'The only way we can reverse-swing the ball is by tampering with it.'"<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"And they were told to do it," Erskine claimed, without naming the officials or saying where they were from.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
According to Sydney's Daily Telegraph, an unknown official who was also in the room said the team was told: "You're paid to win not just to play."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
But the official insisted that there was no suggestion to cheat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"There just wasn't," they told the newspaper. "No one would ever advocate cheating."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Warner withdrew his bid to overturn his lifetime captaincy ban on Wednesday, claiming a review panel wanted to subject him to "a public lynching".<\/p>\r\n\r\n