David Warner unloads on Pat Cummins for throwing Usman Khawaja 'under the bus' over Sandpapergate - as he links the saga to his wife Candice's miscarriage: 'Life punishment'

David Warner has accused Australian Test captain Pat Cummins of throwing Usman Khawaja 'under the bus' over Sandpapergate, as he opened up about the miscarriage his wife Candice suffered in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal.Earlier on Friday, Cummins dismissed Khawaja's claim that the entire Australian team knew about the plan to use sandpaper in South Africa in 2018 as 'complete and utter nonsense'. He also accused his former teammate of being 'casual with lives and reputations' and insisted there had been no team meeting to discuss collective responsibility and no 'masterplan around using illegal methods'.Warner defended his childhood friend Khawaja while commentating on Fox Cricket before Australia's one-day international against England at Perth's Optus Stadium on Friday.He spoke about the toll the scandal had taken on his family, saying he and his wife had paid the heaviest price and linked it to her miscarriage. 'Yes we accepted it, but at the end of the day my wife and I copped the greatest price; we lost a baby during that time, and that's why it really hurts me the most until the truth is accepted,' he said.He described Cummins' response to his friend's claims in Khawaja's recently released biography as 'very well prepared'. 'I still stick by what Uzzie's written in that book; it's the truth,' Warner said. David Warner accused Australian Test captain Pat Cummins of throwing Usman Khawaja 'under the bus' on Friday while commentating for Fox Cricket David Warner and his wife Candice lost their unborn child a week after they returned home following the Sandpapergate scandal in South Africa 'I support him [Usman] and I actually feel for him at the moment. 'I actually feel that the captain today threw Uzzie under the bus and I'm very, very disappointed.'Warner, former Test captain Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft received lengthy bans from Cricket Australia over their involvement in the scandal. 'All three of us have paid a big price - I hadn't spoken about it in eight years, but at the end of the day we have to live with these consequences daily, and we've been served a life punishment.'When other people talk about [being affected] by it, there's nothing worse than for me, Steve and Cameron who have to walk out there every single day and cop abuse.'Warner said he had spoken to Khawaja and Bancroft and that both were 'quite upset' by what had transpired.'In the eight years since, not one of those people in that changeroom have spoken to us about it… the mateship that we talk about, the honesty that you have with each other, there's been no contact or questions about it,' he said.'We're all adults and we're open to conversation; I've played golf with Pat Cummins a couple of times, I've been in changerooms and we've won a couple of World Cups, and its just never been questioned.' Warner said that he and his wife Candice paid the heaviest price over Sandpapergate. He addressed Cummins' claims while commentating for Fox Cricket on Friday'At the end of the day Pat's not going to agree with me (and) I'm not going to agree with him; he's obviously spoken about what he thinks about Uzzie and his book, but I stand by Uzzie's comments.'When Fox Cricket co-commentator and Aussie cricket great Adam Gilchrist asked if another investigation by CA was required, Warner noted that CA boss Todd Greenberg 'squashed that the other day'.'It's been very difficult because the way it was handled in the first place, it was hard to go back and give more evidence,' Warner said.'It felt like it was a botched investigation; it was a quick one to get it over and done with. Some of the questions were quite challenging in the way it was planted on us and we had to move on and just accept responsibility (the three of us).'Former England captain Michael Vaughan asked Warner if he had 'absolute proof' that more players knew about the sandpaper tactics.'There will be conversations behind the scenes after all this,' Warner said.Warner commentated during the match alongside Alyssa Healy, who is married to his former teammate Mitchell Starc. Starc has previously denied any knowledge of the sandpaper tactics.Warner's wife, Candice, previously revealed she had suffered a miscarriage a week after the couple and their young daughters returned to Sydney from South Africa following the scandal. Australian Test captain Pat Cummins has broken his silence on Usman Khawaja's explosive 'Sandpapergate' claims Left to right: Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Starc, all four bowlers who played in the Cape Town Test match and have denied they knew sandpaper was being taken onto the field Khawaja and Cummins together on the sidelines during a Test match in 2018 'I woke up feeling pretty ordinary. I called Dave to the bathroom and told him I was bleeding. We knew I was miscarrying and we held one another and cried,' Candice told Nine's Now to Love at the time.'The miscarriage was a tragic consequence, a heartbreaking end to a horror tour. Like so many families who've experienced a miscarriage, it's just really sad. 'The entire ordeal, from the public humiliations to the ball tampering, it had taken its toll and, from that moment, we decided that no sport, nothing will ever impact our lives like that again.'At the time, I felt like I'd let us down – that my body had let us down – but I've come a long way since then. I'm a very spiritual person and I truly believe it wasn't their time to be with us. Despite our terrible loss, I do know without any doubt that my calling in life is to be a mum.'The Warners welcomed their third daughter a year after the miscarriage. Earlier on Friday, Cummins reiterated the statement he put out in 2021 with fellow bowlers Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon denying all knowledge of the plans.'When Khawaja says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out in the field, he's 100 per cent wrong,' he told reporters.'I've said that consistently for the last eight years. '[Usman] says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense.'It's something I've actually been grappling with the last couple days... Usman is a friend, but I think the way he's been quite casual and flippant with people's lives and reputations... I don't think that's okay, and I don't think that's what friends do.'A reporter then asked: 'So, one of you is not telling the truth, which one of you is not telling the truth?' Cummins replied: 'Well, that's my story. So, I think [Usman's] wrong,' adding that he wouldn't be pursuing legal action over the claims.