Former Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja has claimed that the entire Australian team knew about the use of sandpaper to illegally alter the ball in the final Test of the 2018 series against South Africa, according to the BBC. Khawaja wrote this in excerpts from his autobiography, "Sabr", published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Khawaja stated that Australia used the ball-tampering tactic in the Test prior to the infamous match in Cape Town. According to him, discussions about altering the ball began during the second Test of the series against South Africa, played in Port Elizabeth – now Gqeberha. He noted that this led to the "discovery of sandpaper as an effective tool" following "open" discussions in the dressing room at St George's Park. Khawaja wrote that at that point, Steve Smith essentially threw his hands up and said he did not want to know.
The incident, dubbed "sandpapergate", was widely condemned and resulted in bans for captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batsman Cameron Bancroft. Australia was exposed in the third Test when television cameras clearly showed Bancroft using sandpaper on the ball to assist in creating reverse swing. Khawaja stated: "We were all in it. Not just the batsmen, not just the bowlers, not just the support staff. All of us." He added that he was shocked not to be asked to provide any evidence during the Cricket Australia investigation.
Four Australian bowlers who played in that match, including current Test captain Pat Cummins, have consistently denied prior knowledge of the plan. In 2021, Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon issued a joint statement saying they "did not know that a foreign substance was brought onto the field". There has never been an explanation as to how bowlers Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon did not notice the change in the condition of the ball.
In a 2021 interview with the Guardian, Bancroft responded to the question of whether the bowlers knew by saying: "That is probably quite self-evident." A few days after Bancroft's interview was published, the four issued a statement noting that they felt "compelled to put key facts on the record". In the statement, they said they did not know that a foreign substance was brought onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until they saw the images on the big screen at Newlands. "To those who, in 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 of that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both highly respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images appeared on the TV broadcast and did not change it because there were no signs of damage", the statement read. "We respectfully ask for an end to the spreading of rumours and insinuations. It has gone on long enough and it is time to move on", they said.
Before the recent Australian Test series in South Africa – which the Proteas won 2-1 – Cummins said he had spoken to Khawaja about the book's publication. Cummins said he had no concern about potential revelations regarding sandpapergate and considered that "it was all resolved at the time" and that the team had "moved on". Cummins stated on 8 October: "He didn't go into too much detail, basically just gave me a heads-up that he was writing a book and, as always, no worries." He added: "Tell your story. That's fine. Obviously, it's a long time ago and all investigations, everything was done at the time and we answered every question a million times."
Khawaja also said that he had consistently argued that the team needed to take collective responsibility, including in the dressing room after the Cape Town Test. He wrote: "I said: 'Accept this as a team. We did it as a team. We knew what was happening and we have to accept it as a team'." He added: "Obviously, that didn't work and those three guys were torn apart." In his memoirs, named after the Arabic term for resilience and endurance, Khawaja dedicated a chapter on Cape Town to Smith, Warner and Bancroft. Khawaja said he believes the trio "deserve" "justice" through the collective guilt of the entire team. "None of that trio wants to be the first to say anything. And rightly so, it will just be hearsay and 'their word' if they do. They needed someone else to say something", he wrote. "But I am not doing this for any other reason than that I think it is the right thing to do." Khawaja also stated: "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 added: "The problem is that I honestly thought that after eight years, the truth should already have come out."
