Usman Khawaja’s book reopens debate over 2018 Cape Town sandpaper incident
Usman Khawaja’s book, released on Tuesday, has reignited scrutiny of the 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering episode at Newlands by criticising the subsequent investigation and alleging wider knowledge within the Australian dressing room. The account has prompted public responses from former players and administrators and risked reopening divisions within Australian cricket.
The episode first surfaced when television footage showed Cameron Bancroft placing sandpaper down his trousers during the Cape Town Test and Cricket Australia swiftly suspended Bancroft, captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner. Smith and Warner received year-long bans and Bancroft a nine-month suspension following Cricket Australia’s inquiry, while Khawaja says he was not interviewed and that investigators “wanted to hear what they wanted to hear” as he sought to “fight for the three guys who’d taken the blame”. Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said players were “urged to come forward” at the time, “and they had the opportunity to do so over these past eight years, and that remains the case”.
Khawaja’s book alleges the use of sandpaper was known beyond the three players punished and describes a coach approaching Bancroft and Khawaja in Cape Town; then-head coach Darren Lehmann told ABC he was not aware of that conversation. Khawaja details a previous Test dressing-room episode in which a player experimented with sandpaper and recalled that “what we saw was unbelievable” and “everyone had a look at the ball and was laughing their heads off”. He also quotes an unnamed bowler in that match saying: “Guys, it’s going heaps now. Just don’t do anything else to it, because it’s silly how much it’s going.”
Khawaja recounts a post-Test conversation with then-team manager Gavin Dovey in which he said: “We need to cop this as a team. We did it as a team, so we cop it as a team.” The book records Dovey replying that Khawaja was “right” but that “two guys in the team disagreed.” Khawaja wrote: “This was the most disappointing part for me,” and added: “I knew who those two guys were, and it was ludicrous that, out of everyone, it was them. It showed me their true colours, though. When the going got tough, all they cared about was themselves.” Warner has said Khawaja’s account is “100% accurate”, and Bancroft told reporters in 2021 that “what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory”.
The International Cricket Council carried out its own process and sanctioned Smith, fining and banning him for one match, and Bancroft, who received a fine, while Cricket Australia imposed the heavier penalties that Khawaja describes as “so disproportionate to the crime”. The book situates those sanctions alongside other incidents in the game’s history, noting that Mike Atherton retained the England captaincy in 1994 after a dirt-in-pocket episode, that Shahid Afridi was banned for two T20s in 2010 for biting the ball, and that Faf du Plessis had been punished twice before the Cape Town Test. Lehmann has denied knowledge of sandpaper use, was not sanctioned by Cricket Australia, and resigned as coach at the end of the series; he told reporters recently: “You don’t see much reverse swing anymore, do you? In fact, you don’t see it. So I think the game’s in a better place, but that doesn’t hide the fact that we did something wrong and we paid the price for it.”
Khawaja’s new material also provides context for a 2021 statement from the bowlers after Bancroft’s interview, which said in part: “We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands.” That statement closed by asking for an end to speculation: “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 has faced criticism within the cricket community since publication and has sought to rebut suggestions he is profiting from the controversy.
Cricket Australia has said it will not reopen the original investigation, and Greenberg accepts there will be differing accounts of the events in Cape Town. Several current players who were not involved in 2018 will be drawn into public commentary this Australian summer: Pat Cummins and the national bowlers are expected to field questions as they prepare for a four-Test series against New Zealand, while Mitch Marsh and Steve Smith are also likely to be asked about the matter, with Marsh expected to speak to media on Thursday in Perth ahead of the white-ball series against England.