DISGRACED Australian vice-captain David Warner has further outraged devastated teammates by swilling champagne in the bar of the team hotel in Cape Town with non-cricket mates, foxsports.com.au understands.

Several of Warner’s already furious teammates have asked cricket bosses to have the disgraced batsman ‘removed’ from the team hotel, warning there could be an ‘incident’ between Warner and angry players if he remains.

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Foxsports.com.au has been told Warner removed himself from a WhatsApp group between the players, with one source saying he had ‘gone rogue’ since news of the ball tampering saga broke.

As Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland was due to land in Cape Town later tonight or tomorrow morning to impose penalties on players involved, it’s believed several players in the Australian team were not aware of the tampering plot until damning footage of Cameron Bancroft scrubbing the ball with yellow tape appeared on the big screen at the ground.

It comes as reports emerged suggesting Warner was the ring leader of the ball-tampering scandal.

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Smith said he and the team’s “leadership group” came up with the strategy to tamper with the ball during lunch on day three of the third Test — an admission which earned him a one-Test ban from the ICC, ruling him out of the fourth Test at the Wanderers which begins on Friday.

Warner is set to join him in sitting out the fourth Test, as Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland arriving in South Africa to conclude an investigation — conducted by Head of Integrity Iain Roy and high performance manager Pat Howard — into the team’s actions in the third Test.

And Fairfax Media reported on Tuesday that Warner has emerged “as the central character” in the sorry saga.

“Fairfax Media has been told that Smith and Warner in particular can expect to be sidelined for ‘a stretch of time’,” the report read.

Smith, Warner and Bancroft are the central figures in the scandal and have all been interviewed by Roy — while the reported states head coach Darren Lehmann, who Smith claimed had no knowledge of the plans, and his coaching staff will also come under the microscope this week.

But it is Warner who could soon be facing the music.

Fairfax reports those close to the combative Australian opener is denying he is the instigator, but there is a growing belief that is not the case.

“Those in the hierarchy at CA have been made aware of suggestions that the vice-captain was the chief conspirator and that Smith foolishly agreed,” the report read.

“Sources close to Warner, however, deny that he was the instigator.

“Others close to the Australian dressing room are adamant that the blame should not rest with one or two individuals and that the whole team and set-up around it should take the fall.

“Warner has been the team’s primary ball manager on the ground in recent times but Bancroft, playing in only his eighth Test, took on those duties at Newlands.”