Khawaja reveals entire team knew of sandpaper in memoir
Usman Khawaja claims in his autobiography that all Australian team members knew about ball-tampering before the 2018 Cape Town Test.
Usman Khawaja says the whole team knew about sandpaper tampering in the 2018 Cape Town Test, according to extracts from his autobiography Sabr published in the Sydney Morning Herald. Khawaja wrote: "It was all of us.
Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us."
This directly contradicts a 2021 joint statement from bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, who denied knowing a foreign substance was taken onto the field. Khawaja said discussions about tampering began during the second Test of that series.
Captain Steve Smith said he didn't want to know about it. Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned; the bowlers avoided punishment.
Khawaja says he was never asked to provide evidence to Cricket Australia's investigation.
- nearly eight years
- Years since event
- 6,229 runs in 88 Tests
- Khawaja's Test record
- Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon
- Bowlers who denied knowledge
- Smith, Warner, Bancroft
- Players banned
Why it mattersThe claim reopens questions about responsibility and knowledge for one of cricket's biggest scandals, nearly eight years after the event.
AustraliaRaises fresh controversy around Australian cricket's integrity and may reignite debate about whether punishment was fairly distributed.
