Former Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has stated that his disclosures about the 2018 ‘Sandpapergate’ ball-tampering scandal are not aimed at targeting individuals but seek to promote collective team responsibility. He also criticised Cricket Australia’s investigation as feeling rushed and revealed that he was never interviewed despite being present alongside Cameron Bancroft during the incident.
The ball-tampering controversy occurred during the third Test of the 2018 series against South Africa in Cape Town. Then-captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner received one-year competitive cricket bans, while Cameron Bancroft received sanctions including a nine-month international and domestic ban.
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In his forthcoming autobiography Sabr, Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian team, including players and support staff, were involved in the scandal during the South Africa tour, countering Cricket Australia’s findings that implicated only Smith, Warner and Bancroft. Khawaja emphasised that he expected the truth to emerge over the past eight years and sought to ensure the three sanctioned players were not left to carry the blame alone. Warner later expressed support for Khawaja’s statements via social media.
In an interview with ABC, Khawaja said, “I mean, I’ve written in my account from what I’ve seen. I’ve told you again, time and time again, like the easiest way for me to do it, and people want to know the answers and lots of different answers. And I’ve left it open-ended to some respects because I’ve told my story and I’ve told my truth and I’ll speak for myself and there’s other times where I’m talking about what’s happened in that situation, but this has never been a witch hunt for me. It’s only been those three guys who’ve had to cop this flak for a long time. I’m hoping other people will come up and talk about it honestly. That’s what I’m hoping but I’m not forcing anyone to do anything.”
He added, “And you got to remember, Pat Cummins, Pat Cummins is a good friend of mine, Mitchell Starc, a lot of these guys, like the guys on the team, other players in the team, Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, they’re all very good friends of mine. I’m not here to go on a witch hunt. All I’ve ever wanted is for us to take accountability as a team and I don’t think that’s a lot to say. I’m not asking a lot from people and I say, ‘We were a part of it, that was us. Let’s just take accountability and tell your story. Don’t have to tell your story.’ But I felt for those three guys that kept having to share the load for the whole time.”
Khawaja expressed that he did not consider the sanctions on Smith, Warner and Bancroft appropriate. “I don’t think the ban for the three, I don’t think the ban for the three players was appropriate,” he said.
Regarding Cricket Australia’s investigation, Khawaja described the process as unsatisfactory, stating, “I don’t feel like it was a thorough investigation because I never got investigated and I was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft the whole time. So it’s hard for me to say cover-up, but I will say it felt rushed.”
Khawaja explained that his purpose in writing about the scandal was to present his version of events and ensure that the three sanctioned players were not alone in facing blame. “There’s no easy way to do it, but I mean, I’m not here to inflame the situation anymore. I was here to tell my truth, what I saw, what I felt, and to stick with those three guys that were made out to be the only people who have taken it, and I wanted that to be shown. I’ll say again, I’ve given my statement about what happened the game before and what was called back then Port Elizabeth and where we played there and what happened. And I was honest to what I saw and what conversations I had,” he said.
He added, “It’s never been for me about pointing fingers and saying, ‘He did this, he said that.’ And that’s why even when I first wrote my edit, there was names, there was lots of things, I pulled it back. Sometimes I’m very specific on things and sometimes they’re a bit vague on things and I do it on purpose because I’m trying to tell a story. But my main objective here is always to try to take accountability as a team. To say, yes, this was happening. And even though that one person did it or the captain knew about it and David Warner always took the heat too for it, that it wasn’t just them, that we were all involved in it as a team, as a squad that was there in South Africa.”
Khawaja said he deliberately avoided naming individuals or making direct accusations, removing several names and details during editing to maintain balance. He aimed to highlight the need for collective accountability while keeping some aspects open-ended to prevent sensationalism and misrepresentation.
He stated, “And that’s what I’m trying to project because it’s never black and white and what I’ve written there shows what I saw and I’m happy to stand by it. I’m just not going, I’m not going to entertain that. And I say this for one reason. I wrote it in my book because it was a space, safe space for me to write. I took a long time. It took me a long time to first write the chapter, then go over it and try to work out a way that it was as balanced as possible. I did it the best way I could. At the same time, trying to be open and honest about what I saw and how things were. I implore people. It’s hard for me to talk about this with you to get the right context. There’s so much happening at that time. And I felt like I found a nice balance with it at the end of it. And I learned from this week when the media article came out that whenever things come out in the media, they get sensationalised all over the, they’re all everywhere and the clickbait, it just runs rapid,”
He concluded by saying he did not wish to elaborate further, standing by his book as his definitive account: “So if I say to anyone, and I just keep going, ‘I’ve talked on social media about this and I’ve written in my book. That’s my statement. That’s what it is. And I’m not going to really speak on any more of it at this moment in time.’”
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