Khawaja: the whole Australia team knew of the 2018 sandpaper plot
Seven Lights
Every member of Australia’s cricket team knew ball tampering was planned for the 2018 Test against South Africa in Cape Town, former opener Usman Khawaja writes in his new autobiography, “Sabr.”
“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja, 39, told the Sydney Morning Herald, which published extracts on Friday. He said discussions began during the second Test at Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha, where the team made what he called the “discovery of sandpaper as an effective agent” after open conversations in the dressing room. Team captain Steve Smith “threw his hands in the air and said he didn’t want to know,” Khawaja wrote.
The four Australian bowlers in the Cape Town match — current Test captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon — have consistently denied prior knowledge. In 2021 they issued a joint statement saying they “did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field.”
The scandal, nicknamed sandpapergate, led to bans for Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batter Cameron Bancroft, and to a sweeping reform of Australian cricket’s leadership and culture. Khawaja urged collective responsibility rather than the individual punishment the sport settled on, and said he was surprised he was never called to give evidence in Cricket Australia’s integrity process.
Cricket Australia said in a statement Friday it remained comfortable with the findings of that process and that players had been given the opportunity to provide information. Khawaja, who scored 6,229 runs in 88 Tests before retiring this year, also wrote that coach Justin Langer restored “humility” to the dressing room after the affair.
The book’s claims reopen a settled official account. Whether Cricket Australia revisits the evidence, and whether the current squad responds, are the next developments to watch.