Former Test captain Michael Clarke has accused Cricket Australia of continually making David Warner the scapegoat of the ball-tampering saga after the latest mess surrounding his leadership ban.
Warner entered Thursday's Test against West Indies with a massive cloud hanging over his head, after withdrawing the application to have his leadership ban lifted in anger over the process.
The opener's fury is due to the independent panel wanting an open hearing into the matter, in what he claimed would have been a public trial of the Cape Town Test.
He said the process would have been detrimental to both the team and his family.
CA backed Warner's push for the review of his ban to be held behind closed doors, but both were denied by the independent panel who set the parameters.
Warner's ban remains the only lingering sanction from the saga, which will be five years old in March.
That is best exemplified by the fact Warner's public fury came on the same day Steve Smith was returned to the captaincy in a stand-in role for the injured Pat Cummins.
"I don't know if it's fair to make David Warner the complete scapegoat and say right, everyone else can go back to normal," Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio.
"We'll forgive you but we won't forgive Davey. I'm still unsure if any of them should be involved in a leadership role.
"I think it's a tough one for Davey to swallow, rules in place for him and not for the others."
Clarke said he still believed the punishments handed down out of the ball-tampering saga were unfair against Warner, who was not captain at the time.
"I see it as very inconsistent," Clarke said.
"I find it very hard to believe it's okay for one but not okay for the other to have a leadership role.
"If Cricket Australia decided that all the guys involved in South Africa, none would play a leadership role, that's a fair call.
"But if it's okay for Smithy, then it has to be okay for Bancroft and Warner.
"This is the last thing cricket needed."
Warner also won the support of Ian Healy, who claimed he had "saved" the team from the drama.
"He has saved cricket here," Healy said on SEN.
"That panel was going to air cricket's problems. Why?
"Why would they do that when every other aspect of their negotiations with the Australian Cricketers' Association, for example, are endeavouring to stay behind closed doors."
Former Test teammate Stephen O'Keefe accused officials of going on a "witch-hunt" by wanting to pore over the details of Cape Town again.
"Why go through all that rubbish? The ban on all three was way too harsh to begin with," O'Keefe said.
"We want to be celebrating this team at the moment and not going after these witch-hunts.
"We all know what happened, We've all moved on from it. Just change your decision and let him captain Australia."
