Khawaja claims entire Australian team knew of sandpaper

Australian cricket’s infamous ball-tampering scandal has been reignited, with former Test player Usman Khawaja claiming the entire team knew about the use of sandpaper to alter the ball.

Khawaja’s claims, made first to the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the release of his memoir today, challenge Cricket Australia’s original investigation, which found only three players knew about the plan.

It reopens questions about who knew what on that 2018 South Africa tour, and whether three players alone carried the blame.

Background

On day three of the third Test against South Africa in March 2018, opener Cameron Bancroft was filmed tampering with the ball, hiding the object in his trousers when challenged.

Ball tampering is banned because it can unfairly help the ball swing.

Bancroft initially claimed it was sticky tape, but Cricket Australia’s investigation found: it was sandpaper, vice-captain David Warner had planned the scheme over lunch, and that captain Steve Smith directed that the evidence be concealed.

The organisation suspended Smith and Warner for a year, and Bancroft for nine months.

At the time, Smith fronted the media to apologise.

He said: “As captain of the Australian cricket team, I take full responsibility. It was a failure of leadership… I’m absolutely gutted.”

The scandal resurfaced in 2021, after Bancroft suggested in an interview with The Guardian that it was “pretty... self-explanatory” that the bowlers knew about the plan beforehand.

Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, the four bowlers in that Newlands Test, issued a joint statement denying any prior knowledge and calling for “an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo”.

Bancroft told Cricket Australia’s integrity unit at the time that he had no new information to offer.

Khawaja

Khawaja’s memoir ‘Sabr’, released today, puts the coaching staff and wider squad in the frame too.

He also claims sandpaper was used in another Test earlier in the series at Gqeberha, not just at Cape Town.

Khawaja says he chose to go public partly because he had promised Warner, a childhood friend, that he would tell the truth.

Of Smith, Warner, and Bancroft, he said in an Instagram post on Sunday: “These three guys took the blame for all of us, they’re the victims.”

Response

On Monday, Warner came forward to support Khawaja, saying in a video statement that his account is “100 per cent accurate”.

The former batter called Cricket Australia’s investigation “rushed and botched,” and pointed to the fact that Khawaja, who sat next to Bancroft throughout the Cape Town Test, was never interviewed.

Darren Lehmann, the team’s coach at the time, said on Saturday that tampering had long been common across the sport, but that he doubted the entire camp knew of the sandpaper plan specifically.

At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Starc referred media to the statement made by the bowling attack in 2021, denying that they knew about the sandpaper.

He said: “I won’t speak on behalf of the bowlers, but where I stand, my opinion hasn’t changed. My recollection hasn’t changed from what we said in 2021.”

The other three bowlers - Cummins, Hazlewood, and Lyon - have not spoken to the media since Khawaja’s claims were made public.

Investigation

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg says the governing body will not reopen its investigation, telling SEN that Khawaja’s book contains “specific details” that contradict other players’ accounts.

“We don’t see any compelling reason to open the investigation or revisit this again. I don’t think there’s anything that can be gained from that… You end up at the same intersection where one person’s version of events contradict the others, and I’m not sure what outcome people are searching for,” he said.