Did Australia’s cricket leaders sandpaper over the truth? New ball tampering revelations suggest so

When sandpaper comes to mind, it usually relates to a weekend trip to a suburban hardware store. Yet, the Australian men’s cricket team has somehow turned this humble home maintenance staple into a symbol of scandal.

In a 2018 Test series against South Africa, captain Steve Smith and fellow batters David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were exposed for conspiring to tamper with the ball (using sandpaper to create an aerodynamic imbalance) during the third match in Cape Town.

This so-called “Sandpapergate” led to a media storm and widespread condemnation, including by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The three players were suspended and fined.

The scandal was widely revisited in the sport media when the team returned to Cape Town in October during the Test series in South Africa.

Now, a decade later, the scandal is back in the spotlight after retired batter Usman Khawaja, who was on the 2018 tour, began promoting his soon-to-be published autobiography, Sabr.

What did Khawaja reveal?

The most telling revelation from Khawaja was that Sandpapergate was not a rogue enterprise involving just three players – he said in a media interview: “it was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.”

The official Cricket Australia (CA) line that it was a one-off infraction by a fraction of the team, is therefore cast into serious doubt.

But the governing body recently insisted: “all relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process.”

Khawaja claims he unsuccessfully urged the whole dressing room at the time to take collective responsibility, but it was just “those three guys [who] got crucified”.

He also stated sandpaper had been used on the ball by Australia in the previous Test match in Port Elizabeth/Gqeberha.

The changing narrative

Sandpapergate never entirely passed into history, with continuing scepticism that the hasty investigation and determination by CA was designed to cauterise the wound rather than explain how the disease had spread.

The four leading Australian bowlers on that tour released a statement in 2021 responding to a media interview with Bancroft implying others were in the know.

Current captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon declared: “we did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball”, pleading for “an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo. It has gone on too long and it is time to move on”.

Khawaja’s incendiary comments and dedicated Sandpapergate chapter in his book contradicts that narrative. It vividly reveals the scandal has not gone away, and his insider account cannot be dismissed as mere uninformed speculation.

What is ball tampering?

Roughening one side of the ball to gain “reverse swing” is against the laws and spirit of cricket.

Read more: How cricket balls move: the science behind swing, seam and spin

But it is widely believed ball tampering is as old as cricket itself, and that an “arms race” earlier this century involved all Test match nations. Most international teams, including South Africa, England and India have found themselves in the ball tampering dock.

Still, some wicked pleasure was taken in the humiliation of an Australian men’s team described in two commissioned, independent post-Sandpapergate reports as having an “arrogant” and “controlling” culture.

Why this is hugely harmful to cricket

Those who care little for sport will wonder what all the fuss is about, as there are many more important outrages in the world than some elite sportsmen bending the rules. But it must be appreciated that sport is suffused with Olympian myths of honourable competition and respect for opponents and the game itself.

Test cricket, in particular, remains as something of a bulwark against the large-scale commercialisation of sport, including its own “fast food” forms like Twenty20.

Read more: Game changers: how a rainy week led a frustrated Don Bradman to reinvent cricket

It provides nostalgic glimpses of a gentlemanly antiquated world represented by its apologists as enlightened and benign.

When twinned with nationalism and masculinity, cricket is lavishly celebrated by the likes of long-serving Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who in 1997 declared:

All my life I really have regarded being captain of the Australian cricket team as the absolute pinnacle of sporting achievement and really, the pinnacle almost of human achievement in Australia.

That brand of cricketing romanticism is always ripe for a fall from grace.

What happens now?

So, what will result from this latest episode of the Sandpapergate melodrama?

Cricket Australia will be pressured to reopen the case. Captain Cummins, his fellow bowlers, and the rest of the 2018 tour party are now under renewed suspicion.

The “Sandpapergate three” may feel empowered, even compelled to tell their stories.

Khawaja can expect strained relations with some former colleagues as he promotes a book suggesting they committed the original sporting sin: failing to back up your mates.