"What the f*** is going on?"

These were the words that distanced Australia's coach Darren Lehmann from the ball-tampering plot hatched by David Warner and Cameron Bancroft with the approval of Steven Smith. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has said this was the message Lehmann relayed to Bancroft via 12th man Peter Handscomb, whom he spoke to on a walkie talkie.

Lehmann offered this version of events to the CA head of integrity Iain Roy when interviewed at the team hotel in Cape Town on Monday, and it was accepted with the help of corroborating witnesses. Sutherland said this explained Lehmann's absence from the charge sheet released by CA on Wednesday, which handed bans to Warner, Bancroft and Smith.

"It is understood and it has been verified by others that on the walkie-talkie he said... you guys probably saw it, the first time anyone knew about it was when it came up on the vision screen," Sutherland said in Johannesburg. "He saw that and he radioed down and he said 'what the f*** is going on?' He said to Handscomb: 'Find out what the f*** is going on'.

"Beyond that I would like to just touch on that he brought everyone into the room when the next break was [at tea]. He basically went through everyone and went 'what is going on?' There are other parts of the investigation that asked lots of questions of lots of people to try and understand that. But in Darren's defence, these were findings that Iain Roy had."

Asked whether Lehmann found out at that stage whether Bancroft was using sandpaper or the adhesive tape he later claimed to have used, Sutherland replied: "I don't know what the specific messages were. But for Iain it was very important to hear. Darren's reaction to those things was pretty clear. He's obviously tried to verify or understand [what] anyone else's involvement [was]."

However Sutherland reiterated that Lehmann's role in the wider culture of the team would be examined by the independent review to be commissioned into the conduct of Australian men's teams. "I've got no doubt that he feels some sort of personal responsibility for that. We all do. This is a terrible situation," Sutherland said. "There are three guys going home that have been offered sanctions that are life-changing.

"There is a feeling of guilt and questions obviously being asked of lots of people as to why or how that might have happened. That's part of the purpose of later discussion and review. We'll clearly take on board whatever comes out of such investigations. But further to that I think it's really important that to say this process is about culture and performance and all of that, but it's also about the standing of the Australian cricket team and how they engage with the Australian public.