Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening its investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, after former Test opener Usman Khawaja claimed in his new autobiography that the entire Australian team knew about the plan to alter the ball with sandpaper. The governing body’s chief executive, Todd Greenberg, said there was no compelling reason to revisit the inquiry.
Khawaja, 39, makes the claim in his autobiography Sabr, which was released on Tuesday. In extracts published in the Sydney Morning Herald, he wrote: “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.” He said the knowledge of the plan was not confined to the three players who were punished — the then captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batter Cameron Bancroft.
Khawaja also claims that sandpaper was first used on the ball during the second Test of the 2018 series in Port Elizabeth, before the plot came to light in the following match in Cape Town. He says Bancroft first volunteered to use sandpaper on the ball after open discussions in the dressing room, and that Smith essentially threw his hands in the air during those talks and said he did not want to know what was happening.
The claims directly challenge Cricket Australia’s official findings from 2018, which concluded that only Smith, Warner and Bancroft had prior knowledge of the tampering. The three were given year-long bans, and the scandal — nicknamed Sandpapergate — sent shock waves through Australian cricket. Coach Darren Lehmann resigned after the tour, although he was cleared of direct involvement.
Khawaja has also revealed that he had planned to go public with the details immediately after the scandal broke, but that Smith persuaded him to remain silent. He said he waited eight years expecting someone else to expose the full truth, and that he dedicated the chapter on the Cape Town controversy to Bancroft, Smith and Warner.
The fallout has been swift. Khawaja cancelled several radio and television appearances on Wednesday after a tense interview on the ABC’s 7.30 programme on Tuesday, in which the journalist Sarah Ferguson repeatedly pressed him on whether the bowlers — Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon — had known about the plan. Khawaja declined to name specific individuals, saying he had written the chapter as a personal safe space and did not want to start a witch hunt against his former team-mates.
David Warner, who was banned for a year over the scandal, has backed Khawaja’s account, describing it as entirely accurate and suggesting that hidden truths would eventually emerge. Mitchell Starc, however, denied on Tuesday that he had any prior knowledge of the plan, and said he had never heard the claim that sandpaper had been used in Port Elizabeth.
Former coach Darren Lehmann has also denied Khawaja’s assertion, saying on ABC Sport that he did not believe everyone in the touring party had been aware of how the ball was being altered. Cummins, the current Test captain, has confirmed that Khawaja spoke to him about the upcoming book last month, before Australia’s recent Test series in South Africa.
Cricket Australia said in a statement that it remained comfortable with the findings of its integrity process, and that all relevant information presented to it to date had been properly considered. The governing body said it was open to considering new information, but it has not committed to a fresh inquiry, and Greenberg’s comments make clear that one is not expected.
The controversy has reopened one of the most painful episodes in Australian cricket, eight years after it happened. For Khawaja, the publication of Sabr is the first time a playing member of that squad has publicly disputed the official version of events. Whether his account changes the historical record will depend on whether anyone else from the 2018 touring party comes forward — and, for now, the governing body has made clear that it considers the matter closed.
