‘Khawaja is 100 per cent wrong’: Pat Cummins responds to sandpaper revelations

Australia’s Test cricket captain Pat Cummins says Usman Khawaja is “100 per cent wrong” to say bowlers knew sandpaper was being used to rough up the ball during matches on the tour of South Africa in 2018.

Former Test batsman Khawaja this week alleged “all of us” knew sandpaper was being used to rough up the ball during the 2018 tour, despite several players, notably the bowlers, having denied this in one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricketing history.

Speaking with media for over an hour on Friday, and committing to “answer every question”, Cummins said he’s taken his time “trying to understand exactly what” Khawaja has alleged, saying some of his claims are “probably true”.

“But I think there’s a few big leaps here, where he’s being vague … the details really matter,” he said.

“When he says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out in the field, he’s 100 per cent wrong.

“I did not know that was happening.”

“[Khawaja] says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That’s complete and utter nonsense.”

Cummins said he supported Khawaja’s “right to tell a story” and described him as a friend.

“But friends aren’t casual with each other’s lives and reputations.

“The way he’s kind of been quite casual and flippant with people’s lives and Australian cricket, I don’t think that’s okay, and I don’t think that’s what friends do.”

Cummins thinks it was “irresponsible” of Khawaja to include the claims in his book “so flippantly and casually”.

“[Khawaja] has actually never asked me or anyone else what we know.”

When Cameron Bancroft was captured on camera putting a piece of sandpaper in his pants during the 2018 Test in Cape Town, Cummins was 24, playing his 13th Test “in a team that at that stage I think had a win at all cost mentality, had an ugly underbelly, and there was too many silos within the team,” Cummins said.

“Traits that I hope that everyone’s seen, and I tried very hard to eradicate for the last six years as captain.”

Cummins did not agree with Khawaja’s sentiment that skin colour played a role in the batsman not being made captain, calling it “actually the most serious” of Khawaja’s claims.

“If you’re going to say that, I think you’ve got to have some evidence.

“Him saying that if you’re Australian captain, you have to be a certain skin colour, I couldn’t disagree with that statement any more.”

Cummins said he would “rather not go into” whether he had observed racist behaviour or conduct during his time in the team.

“Some of the language, I think we’ve all evolved a little bit … there’s nothing very, very racist that I’ve seen,” Cummins said.

Following Khawaja’s claims, a key figure involved in a player review after the scandal subsequently called on Cricket Australia to reopen an investigation into the use of sandpaper in 2018.

David Warner, vice-captain at the time and one of three players suspended over the incident, described Khawaja’s version of events as 100 per cent accurate.

Interest in the scandal’s resurgence this week has only grown as the days went on. The media turnout for Cummins on Friday was on par with press conferences held in the immediate wake of the scandal by then-captain Steve Smith and Warner.

Khawaja pulled out of interviews earlier this week after a bruising appearance on the ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday night, when he refused to answer numerous questions, including what knowledge the now-captain Cummins had about sandpaper being used.

Cummins spoke on Friday days after fellow bowler Mitchell Starc similarly disputed Khawaja’s claims.

“We weren’t aware it was taken on the field to be tampered with. We saw it on the big screen [for the first time] in Cape Town. As far as the book’s concerned, I haven’t read it and probably won’t read it, so that’s for Usman to elaborate on,” Starc said.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Friday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.