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Khawaja Claims Entire Australia Team Knew About Sandpaper Scandal
Confirmed
In Short: Former Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja claimed on Saturday that the entire Australian team knew about the 2018 'Sandpapergate' scandal involving the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball during a Test match in Cape Town.
Former Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja claimed on Saturday that the entire Australian team knew about the 2018 'Sandpapergate' scandal involving the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball during a Test match in Cape Town.
Khawaja, in an interview with Al Jazeera, said, 'It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.' He made the claim ahead of the release of his autobiography, where a chapter is dedicated to the issue.
Khawaja's assertion contradicts previous statements from bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon, who denied knowing about the incident in 2021.
Cricket Australia (CA) responded to Khawaja's claims, stating in a statement that 'all relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process.'
Khawaja said he spoke in the dressing room after the Cape Town Test, urging the team to take collective responsibility rather than scapegoating players like David Warner, Steve Smith, and Cameron Bancroft.
Khawaja also claimed that discussions about using sandpaper had taken place much earlier than previously acknowledged, and that Bancroft volunteered to use sandpaper during the second Test match in Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha.
Cricket Australia's investigation, conducted by then head of integrity Iain Roy and team performance manager Pat Howard, found that Warner had come up with the plan, Bancroft had carried it out, and Smith knew about it but failed to stop it.
Smith and Warner were subsequently banned by Cricket Australia for 12 months, while Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.
What this adds
Khawaja's claims add new details to the scandal, suggesting a wider knowledge within the team than previously acknowledged.
What's confirmed
- Bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all denied publicly in 2021 that they knew about it.
- "It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us," Khawaja, 39, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
- "I was sitting next to Cam Bancroft that whole Test match, and I didn't get interviewed," Khawaja said.
What's still developing
- The 33-year-old said he has no concerns about potential sandpapergate revelations and felt it was "all dealt with then" and the team had "moved on".
- Television cameras caught Cameron Bancroft attempting to alter the condition of the ball using sandpaper, triggering a massive controversy.
- "It was all of us," Khawaja, a former top-order batsman who played 88 tests for Australia, said in the book, according to the newspaper.
- Khawaja, who retired from international duty after Australia's 4-1 Ashes thrashing of England last winter, said: "It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us."
- Khawaja scored over 6,000 runs for Australia's Test team in 88 matches between 2011 and 2026, notching 16 hundreds and 28 fifties with a best of 232 in Sri Lanka in January 2025.
- That came after Bancroft - who had aimed to conceal the sandpaper down his trousers during the Test in question - replied "I think it's probably self-explanatory" when asked in a newspaper interview whether the bowling attack knew about the scandal.
- In extracts of the book published in The Sydney Morning Herald, Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian contingent knew about the ball-tampering ploy employed by the team during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
- “At this point Smith essentially threw his hands in the air and said he didn’t want to know,” Khawaja wrote.