Khawaja says entire Australia team knew of 2018 ball‑tampering on South Africa tour

Usman Khawaja has said the entire Australia team knew about and was involved in ball tampering during the 2018 tour of South Africa. He made the comments to Nine newspapers.

The controversy originally became public during the third Test at Newlands in March 2018, when television cameras captured Cameron Bancroft using a piece of sandpaper to rough up the ball in an attempt to generate reverse swing. Cricket Australia's inquiry, conducted by then head of integrity Iain Roy and team performance manager Pat Howard following instructions from chief executive James Sutherland, concluded David Warner had devised the plan, Bancroft had carried it out and captain Steve Smith knew about it but failed to stop it; all three were sent home. Smith and Warner received 12-month bans from international and domestic cricket while Bancroft was suspended for nine months, and Warner's lifetime ban from leadership roles in Australian cricket was overturned in 2024.

Khawaja told Nine that the practice had started during the second Test in Port Elizabeth and that "It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,". He also questioned why Cricket Australia's investigators never spoke to him despite his proximity to Bancroft in the Cape Town Test.

On why he chose to speak publicly now Khawaja said: "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," and added that he had waited for investigators to contact him but never received a call before the punishments were announced. "I was sitting next to Cam Bancroft that whole Test match, and I didn't get interviewed," Khawaja said.

Khawaja said he had always felt the responsibility should have been shared by the team rather than left with three players and recalled telling teammates in the dressing room to take collective responsibility after the incident; he said that was not how things unfolded. He also spoke about the toll the scandal had taken on Smith, Warner and Bancroft, who, in his view, continued to carry the weight of what happened.

Questions about how much the Australian bowlers knew surfaced in 2021 after Bancroft suggested their awareness was "self-explanatory"; Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon issued a joint statement denying that they knew a foreign substance had been taken onto the field to alter the ball. Responding to Khawaja's latest comments, Cricket Australia said it remained comfortable with the findings and that all relevant information presented to it had been properly considered.

Khawaja also claimed South Africa were better at working on the ball to generate reverse swing and that Australia were trying to keep up. Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis had himself been sanctioned twice for ball tampering, including during a Test against Australia.

Khawaja's claims have not altered the official findings of the 2018 investigation, but they have brought the controversy back into focus. He said his autobiography Sabr, due Tuesday, November 10, would reveal more about what he had heard regarding the hosts' methods.