Khawaja says entire 2018 Australia touring party knew of sandpaper tampering; CA remains 'comfortable' with sanctions

Usman Khawaja says the entire Australia touring party knew about the 2018 ball‑tampering plot in Cape Town and that sandpaper was used on the ball during the second Test in Port Elizabeth, he wrote ahead of the release of his autobiography Sabr on Tuesday. Khawaja also says the team used sandpaper before Cameron Bancroft was filmed handling the object during the third Test at Newlands.

A Cricket Australia inquiry in 2018 found that Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner had prior knowledge of a plan to use sandpaper as a ball‑tampering agent in Cape Town and sanctioned Smith and Warner with 12‑month suspensions and Bancroft with a nine‑month ban. Khawaja dedicates the "sandpapergate" chapter of Sabr to Bancroft, Warner and Smith and, according to Nine newspapers, writes: "It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us." He adds: "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. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now."

Khawaja says Bancroft first volunteered to use sandpaper during the second Test in Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha, and that the plan unravelled when cameras spotted the young opener handling a yellow object on the field in the next Test at Newlands. He writes that Smith walked away from discussions around ball tampering in the dressing room in Port Elizabeth, which Khawaja says gave the impression Smith did not want to know what was going on.

On the decision to accept collective responsibility, Khawaja writes: "Maybe I thought Davey would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn’t think it was going to come down to this. "But the longer it’s gone on for, and right from the very start, I’ve been on the train of collectively taking it. "Even in the change rooms when I was talking to them after the game. 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, and so I was always of that stance. "Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified."

Responding to Khawaja’s claims, a Cricket Australia spokesperson said: "There has been a great deal of speculation in the eight years since the 2018 Cape Town Test, including extensive media coverage throughout last month’s series in South Africa. "During this time there has been the ongoing opportunity to present any relevant information, and this remains the case. "All relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process."

Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon publicly denied in 2021 that they knew about the scheme after Bancroft had told the Guardian it was "probably self-explanatory" whether the bowlers had prior knowledge.

Cummins confirmed in the lead up to Australia’s recent tour of South Africa that Khawaja had called to inform him he would be writing the book and said: "It’s obviously a long time ago. "All the investigations, everything was done back then. Answered every question a million times. "It was dealt with then, all I can say is as a group we’ve moved on."