David Warner has said Usman Khawaja was “100 per cent accurate” with his account of Australia’s sandpaper scandal of 2018.

Warner served a one-year ban after an investigation found him to be the architect of the plan to take sandpaper on to the field in a Test in Cape Town in 2018, in one of the biggest scandals in cricket history.

Cameron Bancroft, who applied the sandpaper to the ball, received a nine-month ban, and Steve Smith, the then Australia captain, was suspended for a year.

The other members of Australia’s team, including the bowlers who used the tampered ball, have always maintained they knew nothing of the plot until Khawaja blew the episode open once more in his autobiography, Sabr, which is released on Tuesday.

Khawaja said every player knew about the use of sandpaper. “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” he said last week in an interview with The Age. “In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now.”

Warner, 40, has largely kept his counsel on the issue and, having retired from Test cricket in 2024, now works as a commentator for Fox and still plays on the franchise circuit. A tell-all book is widely expected but Khawaja, a friend since childhood, has published his first.

In a video on Instagram, Warner described Khawaja’s version of events as “100 per cent accurate”.

“It’s been eight years since I spoke on this topic,” he said. “Uzzie, 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. People wanted to know it. You’ve come out and said it. Now people are saying ‘why eight years on?’ Talking about selling a book.

“This is Usman’s story. This is what Uzzie believes. Uzzie wrote down every single thing from that day on. Uzzie, thank you.”

Cricket Australia refused to be drawn on the issue since Khawaja’s revelations but is under increasing pressure to respond, not least because the four bowlers who played in Cape Town are still in their first-choice side, with one of them, Pat Cummins, the captain. Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon issued a punchy denial in 2021 after Bancroft implied in an interview that they knew about the plot. Khawaja’s claims have also been supported by Chadd Sayers, a back-up bowler in Cape Town.

Warner took aim at the investigation, which had a narrow focus, and did not even interview Khawaja.

“This whole interview process was rushed and botched,” Warner said. “Uzzie was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft [in the dressing-room at Cape Town]. Uzzie was not interviewed. How is that a thorough investigation? It baffles me.

“We’re not here to point fingers and we’re not opening old wounds. It’s about accountability, transparency, ensuring that the truth is properly examined, and perhaps it’s time people stop scrutinising the person, [people should be] asking for accountability and start asking those responsible for the investigation to provide it.

“There was a lot of statements and inaccuracies over the last eight years that were out in the media and there were a lot of people who stayed silent.

“The last couple of days I have been talking to my daughters. That’s why it’s taken me a couple of days to get this out, because I’ve had to tell them exactly what had happened – especially my 12-year-old, Ivy, wanting to know why we were holding her, why there were so many cameras, why we were crying on TV. That was a hard thing to do. But one thing I did say is, ‘girls, tell the truth, because lies will eventually get out’. It was a very tough time.

“This is for everyone in Australia. It’s been the question that everyone’s been asking. Uzzie, you’ve said it how it is. It’s 100 per cent accurate.

“It’s been a tough time for my family, Steven and Cameron, no doubt. But this is what needed to come out. I fully support that.”

Labuschagne dropped

Cummins is expected to lead Australia in the first Test against New Zealand in a month’s time, but one player who will not be involved is Marnus Labuschagne, whose tortured run in the team has ended. Labuschagne has not scored a Test ton since 2023 amid a remarkable drop in form.

“We won’t be considering Marn for selection certainly for that first Test, but [also] for the New Zealand series,” said selector George Bailey. “And the reason I just wanted to clear that up today is I think there’s going to be or has been a lot of speculation around his place in the team.

“So I think this gives him a little bit of space and clears up a bit of conjecture as we work through the next round of Shield cricket, and we’ll pick the rest of that squad at the end of the completion of round four of Sheffield Shield.”