David Warner has hit back at former Australia batting coach Graeme Hick after Hick dismissed Usman Khawaja’s account of the Sandpapergate scandal as “absolutely false.”
Warner also alleged that Australian players offered to surrender part of their salaries in an attempt to keep Michael Di Venuto as batting coach before Hick took over in 2016.
“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 X.
“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. 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!”
Warner’s intervention followed Hick’s rejection of Khawaja’s suggestion that responsibility for the 2018 ball-tampering scandal extended beyond the players to include members of the Australian team and coaching staff.
“I have seen the various statements around the coaches, and I’m very disappointed with the broad nature of them,” Hick told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“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.”
David Warner, pictured with Usman Khawaja, has launched another attack as the Sandpapergate dispute continues to divide Australian cricket
Former Australia batting coach Graeme Hick, pictured with Travis Head, has strongly rejected Khawaja’s allegations
Warner says Australian players offered to contribute from their salaries to keep Di Venuto
Hick also categorically denied being aware of any discussions about ball-tampering in either Port Elizabeth or Cape Town.
“In regard to any discussions around the ball-tampering in Port Elizabeth or Cape Town, I will say in true honesty that I did not hear or know anything,” he said.
“My first knowledge of all this was, like many, when it appeared on the big screen in Cape Town as I was sitting on the outside balcony at the time.”
Hick replaced Di Venuto as Australia’s batting coach in 2016, roughly two years before the Sandpapergate scandal erupted.
Di Venuto had held the position since 2013, following a playing career in which he accumulated 25,200 first-class runs and appeared in nine one-day internationals for Australia.
His spell with the national team overlapped with Steve Smith’s emergence as one of the world’s premier batters.
Australia also turned to Di Venuto as an interim head coach when Darren Lehmann was sidelined by deep vein thrombosis, shortly before Di Venuto left for Surrey.
Smith made clear how highly he regarded Di Venuto in a farewell message published at the time.
Di Venuto enjoyed an outstanding domestic playing career before moving into coaching
Steve Smith paid tribute to Michael Di Venuto in a glowing farewell message a decade ago
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“Thanks Michael Di Venuto for all that you have done for me the last couple of years,” Smith wrote.
“You’ve been an absolutely amazing batting coach and a great man. You are going to be missed by myself and all of the Australian batters.
“You are going to be a great head coach and Surrey are very lucky to have you.”
Di Venuto subsequently delivered the success Smith had forecast, leading Surrey to the 2018 County Championship title—the club’s first in the competition for 16 years.
Smith’s tribute underlines Warner’s claim that Di Venuto was highly valued by the players, although it does not refer to a salary dispute or any offer to help retain him.
Hick remained Australia’s batting coach from 2016 until 2020 and was part of the coaching team when Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball during the Cape Town Test.
Warner has strongly endorsed Khawaja’s version of events, writing: “It’s 100 per cent accurate what you’ve said. Now everyone knows the truth.”
Their account, however, has been challenged by Hick, former head coach Darren Lehmann and fast bowler Mitchell Starc.
Warner has publicly supported Khawaja’s account of the Sandpapergate scandal
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Should more people be held accountable for Sandpapergate, or is blame being unfairly spread?
Former Australia bowling coach David Saker suggested in a 2021 interview that responsibility for the scandal may have extended beyond the three players punished.
“Obviously, a lot of things went wrong at that time,” he said.
“The finger-pointing is going to go on and on, and on. There were a lot of people to blame. It could have been me, it could have been someone else. It could have been stopped, and it wasn’t, which is unfortunate.
“Cameron’s a very nice guy. He’s just doing it [the media interview] to get something off his chest … he’s not going to be the last. You could point your finger at me, you could point your finger at ‘Boof’ [Lehmann], you could point it at other people—of course you could.
“The disappointing thing is that it’s never going to go away, regardless of what’s said. We all know that we made a monumental mistake. The gravity wasn’t as plain until it all came out.”
The conflicting accounts have reopened old wounds from a scandal that brought 12-month bans for Warner and Smith, while Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.
In his autobiography, Sabr, Khawaja questions Cricket Australia’s conclusion that only those three players knew about the plan in advance.
He has defended his decision to revisit the controversy while choosing not to name publicly the individuals he believes were aware of it.
Cricket Australia continues to stand by its original investigation and says there is no compelling reason to reopen the case.