Pat Cummins on Khawaja's Sandpapergate claim: 'utter nonsense'

Pat Cummins has answered Usman Khawaja in public, and he did not hold back. At a press conference he called himself in Sydney on Friday, 13 November, the Australia Test captain said Khawaja’s claim that the whole 2018 team knew about the sandpaper plan was “utter nonsense” and “100 per cent wrong”.

This is the new turn in a row that has been growing all week since Khawaja’s book, Sabr, came out. Earlier this week Khawaja cancelled some of his book interviews as the argument spread.

What did Pat Cummins say about Khawaja?

Cummins spoke for more than an hour, Sky Sports reported. His main point was about one word. If Khawaja means the bowlers “all knew” sandpaper was being taken onto the field in Cape Town, Cummins said, he is simply wrong.

He said the book goes further than that. “He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper,” Cummins said, and he rejected it completely.

The tone was personal as well as angry. “Usman’s a friend, but friends aren’t casual with each other’s lives and reputations,” he said, adding that Khawaja had been casual with his former team-mates and with Australian cricket.

Cummins said he had been advised this week that some of what was written is “probably defamatory”, but he will not take legal action. “You’ve got to move on. It’s been eight years,” he said.

He also addressed a video, filmed a day earlier, of him and his wife Becky in a heated conversation. He said it came from her anger at Khawaja’s actions.

What does Khawaja’s book claim?

In Sabr, Khawaja writes that the whole side knew about the ball-tampering plan on the 2018 tour of South Africa, when Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera with sandpaper. Cricket Australia’s own inquiry at the time found that only Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft knew in advance, and all three were banned.

Khawaja also claims Australia experimented with lifting the seam during the 2017-18 home Ashes, which they won 4-0.

Khawaja has defended the book. He has said he is not throwing anyone under the bus, that he promised Warner he would tell the story after he retired, and that he does not need the money from sales.

Who is backing whom?

The dressing room is split in public now:

• David Warner said on Monday that Khawaja’s version was “100 per cent accurate” and that Cricket Australia’s inquiry was flawed.
• Pat Cummins stands by the 2021 statement he signed with Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, saying they did not know a foreign substance had been taken on the field.
• Mitchell Starc said he had not read the book and probably would not.
• Cricket Australia has defended its 2018 investigation.

Why Pakistani fans are watching

Khawaja was born in Islamabad and is one of the most followed Australian cricketers in Pakistan, so his book has been read and argued about here too. The timing is awkward for Australia: Cummins spoke only hours before the first ODI against England in Perth, a series he has been rested for, with an Ashes summer in England coming next year.

Khawaja had not replied to Cummins’s press conference by Friday morning, Pakistan time. Whether Cricket Australia reopens anything is the next thing to watch.