Australia bowlers deny 'inflammatory and misleading' Warner report
March 31, 2019 08:15 MYT
Australia bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon have denied that they planned to boycott last year's fourth Test against South Africa if David Warner had been free to play.
Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were given long bans for their roles in the ball-tampering scandal at Newlands last March.
It was reported in the Australian media this week that Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon would have refused to play in the final match of the series in Johannesburg in the wake of the Cape Town fiasco if Warner was in the side.
With Warner and Smith now eligible to resume their international careers as of this week, the quartet have refuted claims they would have made themselves unavailable if the former vice-captain had been selected.
They said in a statement released by Cricket Australia: "We are extremely disappointed in an article which was first published across Fairfax platforms on March 29, 2019.