Usman Khawaja reveals ‘all of us’ involved in 2018 Australia sandpaper ball-tampering scandal

Former Australia batter Usman Khawaja made explosive revelations about the infamous Sandpaper Gate scandal during the 2018 South Africa tour in his new memoir, titled ‘Sabr’.

In extracts of the book published in The Sydney Morning Herald, Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian contingent knew about the ball-tampering ploy employed by the team during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

Although the eventual casualties were then captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, Khawaja revealed that discussions around the sandpaper tactic had begun during the previous Test in Port Elizabeth.

“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Khawaja said that the second Test in Port Elizabeth led to Australia’s “discovery of sandpaper as an effective agent” after “open” discussions were held in the dressing room at St George’s Park.

“At this point Smith essentially threw his hands in the air and said he didn’t want to know,” Khawaja wrote.

The Australia team were caught in a massive controversy when television cameras zoomed in on Bancroft using sandpaper on the ball to generate reverse swing in Cape Town.

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“In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth,” he said.

“The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now.”

While the batting trio received a year-long ban from international cricket, Australia’s bowling quartet of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon maintained that they were unaware of the incident.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2021, Bancroft said that it was “probably self-explanatory” in a response to a question on the bowlers.

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Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon released a joint-statement days after Bancroft’s interview and stated: “We did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands.

“And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that ‘we must have known’ about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.

“We respectfully request an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo. It has gone on too long and it is time to move on.”

Khawaja claimed that he said that he wanted the entire team to accountability of the incident in the dressing room.

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“I said: ‘Take this as a team. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we have to take it as a team’.

“Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified,” he wrote.