New Delhi: Cricket Australia responded to Usman Khawaja’s explosive claims on the sandpaper gate incident during the 2018 South Africa tour that shook the cricketing world.
Khawaja, who will be detailing the incident in his upcoming book ‘Sabr’, has revealed that the entire Australian team was aware of the sandpaper gate in the Cape Town Test and that it was also used in the previous Test match.
Responding to the former opener’s claims, CA stated that the information presented to them was “properly considered” and they remain “comfortable” with their findings.
“There has been a great deal of speculation in the eight years since the 2018 Cape Town Test, including extensive media coverage throughout last month’s series in South Africa,” the statement read.
“During this time there has been the ongoing opportunity to present any relevant information, and this remains the case.
“All relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered, and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process,” it added.
Khawaja made a bombshell claim, stating that the whole of the Australian team was aware of the incident. “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja said, as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald before the release of his book.
Up until now, the public belief was that the then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batter Cameron Bancroft were involved in the incident, with Bancroft having applied the object to the ball, as seen in the visuals of the Test match.
Smith and Warner were handed a one-year ban from playing in international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft was banned for nine months.
Moreover, Smith was told that he could not captain Australia for two years. Warner was hit with a lifetime leadership ban in international and Australian domestic cricket, something which was overturned in 2024.
Khawaja, speaking on the incident, stated that he did not want to reveal the truth, feeling that it must have been out by now. “In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now,” he added.
Khawaja also claimed that the South African team was “far better” at working with the ball and that they were “trying to keep up with them”. He further said that he would reveal what they were doing in his book. Meanwhile, then South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has stated multiple times that his team was also trying to get the ball to reverse through unconventional methods, and he had previously been sanctioned twice for ball tampering.
