Usman Khawaja on sandpaper scandal: 'It was all of us' in 2018 team
Khawaja says every Australian player and staff member knew about the 2018 ball tampering. Cricket Australia stands by its findings. Here is what he claims.
Usman Khawaja says the whole Australian team knew about the sandpaper used on the ball in South Africa in 2018, not just the three men who were banned. The Islamabad-born batter makes the claim in his book Sabr, telling Nine newspapers: “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.”
That is why his name jumped into Google’s top searches in Pakistan on Saturday morning. Cricket Australia has not changed its position: a spokesperson said the board remains “comfortable with the findings of our integrity process”, which named only Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner.
What exactly is Khawaja claiming?
According to ABC News, which reported the book’s contents, Khawaja makes four main points:
- It started a Test earlier. He says sandpaper was also used in the second Test at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), not only at Newlands in Cape Town, where Bancroft was caught on camera.
- The captain walked out. He says light-hearted talk about sandpaper in the dressing room during that second Test made Smith leave the room, saying he did not want to know.
- Bancroft volunteered. He says Bancroft offered to use it in the first innings of that Test, when the ball was swinging a lot.
- Nobody asked him. Khawaja says he sat next to Bancroft throughout the Cape Town Test and saw who spoke to the young opener, yet Cricket Australia’s investigator never interviewed him.
The ball-tampering chapters were kept secret until 7 November, ABC News reported. Khawaja dedicates that chapter to Bancroft, Smith and Warner, saying the saga weighed on all three.
Who disputes it?
Cricket Australia’s 2018 investigation found that only the three players knew. Bancroft was banned for nine months; Smith, the captain, and Warner, the vice-captain, for twelve months each. In 2021, fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and spinner Nathan Lyon publicly denied knowing about the plan.
There is also a voice from Khawaja’s own corner. His childhood coach and mentor Bill Anderson told ABC’s Australian Story last month that Khawaja “tried to coerce them all” into saying they knew what was going on, and that some players would not go along with it. So far, none of the named players has responded to the book publicly.
Why is he speaking now?
Khawaja told ABC Radio National he “genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now”. He links the scandal to a “win at all costs” culture that he says grew after Australia lost the 2010-11 home Ashes, the series in which he made his Test debut. He also credits coach Justin Langer with helping the team find humility afterwards, and says that if he could do it again, he would have stood his ground more firmly.
Why Pakistanis are searching
Khawaja was born in Islamabad and moved to Australia as a child, and he became the first Pakistan-born player to wear the baggy green. He has spoken often about race and belonging in Australian cricket, so a claim this big from him lands differently from a tabloid rumour.
It is still one player’s account against an official finding and the denials of four senior team-mates. What to watch next: whether Smith, Cummins or Cricket Australia reply in detail once the full book is out.
