Eight years after one of the biggest controversies in Australian cricket, Usman Khawaja has made a revelation that could change how the 2018 Sandpaper Gate scandal is remembered. The former Australian batter has claimed that the entire team knew about the ball-tampering plan. He has also revealed that the use of sandpaper was discussed and attempted during the previous Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha).
More importantly, Khawaja believes Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were left to face the consequences of something that involved the entire team. He claims he had asked his teammates to accept collective responsibility after the Cape Town Test instead of allowing three players to take the fall.
“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja told the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the release of his autobiography, Sabr.
His comments challenge Cricket Australia’s original investigation, which identified Smith, Warner and Bancroft as the three players responsible for the scandal. They also reopen questions about Australia’s bowling attack, particularly after Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon publicly denied knowing about the use of a foreign substance in 2021.
Usman Khawaja Says Sandpaper Gate Was a Team-Wide Affair
According to Usman Khawaja, the story did not begin during the infamous Cape Town Test. Discussions about altering the ball’s condition had already taken place during the second Test at Port Elizabeth.
Khawaja claims the Australian players openly discussed ways to rough up the ball and found sandpaper to be an effective option. Cameron Bancroft eventually volunteered to use it during the match. The ball subsequently generated significant reverse swing, which became a talking point among the players.
Khawaja also recalled that Smith walked away from the discussion, making it clear that he did not want to know what was happening.
The controversy reached its biggest moment during the third Test at Newlands in Cape Town. Television cameras caught Bancroft using a small piece of sandpaper on the ball before attempting to hide it down his trousers.
Smith subsequently admitted that the leadership group had discussed tampering with the ball. He, Warner and Bancroft were sent home from the South African tour.
However, Khawaja claims the entire team should have accepted responsibility.
“In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this,” Khawaja said. “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.
“Maybe I thought Davey would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn’t think it was going to come down to this. But the longer it’s gone on for, and right from the very start, I’ve been on the train of collectively taking it.
“Even in the change rooms when I was talking to them after the game. I said, ‘Take this as a team’. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we have to take it as a team, and so I was always of that stance.
“Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified.”
Usman Khawaja also revealed that he was surprised Cricket Australia did not interview him during its investigation.
“I was sitting next to Cam Bancroft that whole Test match, and I didn’t get interviewed,” Khawaja said. “I thoroughly feel that I didn’t get interviewed because of that, because they knew that I wanted to take it as a team, because they knew I was ready to tell the truth if I was interviewed.
“And I was waiting for my phone to ring. It just never rang, and then the penalties were given, and I couldn’t believe it.”
The former opener believes Smith, Warner and Bancroft have carried the consequences of the incident for years without receiving the justice they deserve.
“I’ve always felt like there’s more to life than just cricket, and these guys, in some respect, deserve that justice,” Usman Khawaja said. “And it just doesn’t feel like anyone’s going to give it to them. None of those three want to be the first to say anything. And rightly so, it will just be hearsay and ‘their word’ if they do. They needed someone else to say something.”
Usman Khawaja also informed current Australian Test captain Cummins before the recent South African tour that his autobiography would discuss the controversy. He acknowledged that the revelations could make things difficult for some former teammates but believes speaking up is the right decision.
“If you read my story, if you read what I’m saying, I have numerous times said it’s us, the team. This is the team. It’s not Steve, Davey and Bangers. It’s all of us,” Khawaja said.
“At the end of the day, I still think it’s the right thing to do for particularly those three guys. And I think most of the guys in the team, at some level, will be relieved that we can finally move on.”
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Australia’s Bowlers Previously Denied Knowing About the Ball Tampering
Khawaja’s revelation is particularly significant because Australia’s four primary bowlers had publicly denied knowing about the use of sandpaper in 2021.
The debate resurfaced after Bancroft gave an interview to The Guardian. “Yeah, look, all I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part. Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory,” Bancroft said.
His comments prompted reactions from former Australian players, including Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke. Eventually, Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon issued a joint statement on May 18, 2021.
The four bowlers strongly denied knowing that a foreign substance had been taken onto the field.
They wrote:
“To the Australian Public,
“We pride ourselves on our honesty. So it’s been disappointing to see that our integrity has been questioned by some journalists and past players in recent days in regard to the Cape Town Test of 2018.
“We have already answered questions many times on this issue, but we feel compelled to put the key facts on the record again:
“- We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands
“- And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that ‘we must have known’ about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.
“None of this excuses what happened on the field that day at Newlands. It was wrong and it should never have happened.
“We’ve all learned valuable lessons and we’d like to think the public can see a change for the better in terms of the way we play, the way we behave and respect the game. Our commitment to improving as people and players will continue.
“We respectfully request an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo.
“It has gone on too long and it is time to move on.
“Regards,
“Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon”
The difference between the two accounts is important. The bowlers denied knowing that sandpaper had been taken onto the field, while Usman Khawaja now claims the entire team knew about the plan.
Cricket Australia also stood by its original investigation after Bancroft’s interview. The board contacted him to ask whether he had any new information, but he reportedly confirmed that he had nothing further to share and was satisfied with the original investigation.
Following Khawaja’s latest revelations, CA has again said that it remains comfortable with its original findings, which identified only Smith, Warner and Bancroft as responsible. Former coach Darren Lehmann has also disputed Khawaja’s suggestion that everyone knew about the sandpaper plan.
Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft Faced Heavy Punishments
Cricket Australia’s investigation resulted in significant punishments for the three players.
Smith and Warner received 12-month bans from international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft was suspended for nine months. Warner was identified as the person who developed the plan and instructed Bancroft to use sandpaper. Smith was found to have knowledge of the potential plan but failed to prevent it. Bancroft was punished for carrying out the attempt and concealing the evidence.
The ICC also imposed separate sanctions. Smith received a one-Test suspension and a fine of 100% of his match fee, while Bancroft received a 75% match-fee fine and three demerit points.
The consequences extended beyond playing suspensions. Smith was restricted from holding a leadership position for an additional 12 months after completing his suspension. Warner received a lifetime leadership ban from Cricket Australia, which was overturned in 2024.
Warner subsequently became eligible for leadership roles again and was named Sydney Thunder’s captain.
Australia’s head coach Lehmann also resigned following the controversy, although he was not found to have directly participated in the ball-tampering plan.
Did England Question Australia’s Reverse Swing During the 2017 Ashes?
Interestingly, questions about Australia’s ability to generate reverse swing had surfaced even before Sandpaper Gate.
Australia had dominated England 4-0 during the 2017-18 Ashes series. Their bowling attack produced reverse swing regularly, even on pitches where conditions did not always appear favourable for it.
After the Cape Town controversy, England fast bowler Stuart Broad questioned why Australia had suddenly changed its methods during the South African tour.
Broad said: “Look at the Ashes series we’ve just played, they’ve reverse swung the ball in conditions you wouldn’t expect to.”
However, Broad also made it clear that he had not seen evidence of ball tampering during the Ashes.
“There was no evidence they were doing this in the Ashes, from what I’ve seen.”
His comments raised questions about Australia’s reverse-swing methods but did not establish that the team had tampered with the ball during the 2017 Ashes.
Opinion: Did Smith, Warner and Bancroft Take the Fall for the Entire Team?
A revelation by Usman Khawaja brings back several questions about the 2018 controversy. Personally, I believe there is much more to this incident than what the original investigation established.
First, the idea that the entire team knew about the plan was never particularly difficult to believe. This is especially true when we consider the purpose behind tampering with the ball. The objective was to change its condition and generate reverse swing, which would eventually benefit the bowling attack.
I still remember Australia’s 2018 tour of South Africa. It was a series where reverse swing played a massive role. Teams would often wait for the ball to become around 30-35 overs old before trying to exploit reverse swing. It was not necessarily about doing something with the new ball. The older ball was where things became particularly interesting.
I also remember the first Test of that series. Mitchell Starc was running through the South African batters and even the lower order with some incredible reverse swing. The way the ball was moving was something else. And despite those difficult conditions, AB de Villiers produced a remarkable batting performance.
That is why the ball-tampering controversy during the third Test was particularly interesting. Australia already had a bowling attack capable of exploiting reverse swing. The players knew how important the condition of the ball was, and the entire purpose of the plan was to give the bowlers an advantage.
I am not saying that bowlers must know about every ball-tampering incident. There can be situations where an individual acts without informing the rest of the team. However, when a team is collectively discussing a plan to alter the ball, I find it difficult to believe that the bowlers would have no idea about it.
Personally, I would put the likelihood of bowlers knowing about such a team-wide plan at around 95-99%. This is my assessment, not a statistical finding. And in Australia’s case, the scale of the incident makes the questions even more difficult to ignore.
The 2021 joint statement from Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon also deserves another look in this context. All four denied knowing that sandpaper had been taken onto the field. However, considering the nature of the plan and the players who were supposed to benefit from it, their denial always left questions in my mind.
The second issue is what happened to Smith, Warner and Bancroft. If Khawaja’s account is accurate, these three players ended up carrying the responsibility for something that involved the entire team.
Smith and Warner were part of the leadership group, so their involvement was already a major responsibility. But Bancroft was a young player who became the face of the scandal because cameras caught him using sandpaper. He was the one who was exposed to the entire world, while the consequences eventually became much bigger than his individual actions.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Bancroft had not been caught. Suppose one of the senior players, perhaps Smith or Warner, had been exposed instead. Would the situation have played out in the same way? Would they have taken the entire blame themselves to protect the rest of the team? Perhaps. But we will never know.
There is another interesting possibility. What if only Steve Smith had been caught? Would he have accepted the entire responsibility alone? I am not entirely convinced. Carrying the tag of a ball-tampering scandal for the rest of your career is a massive burden. When three players were identified and punished, the public backlash was divided to some extent. Had only one player been involved publicly, the entire weight of the controversy might have fallen on that individual.
This does not mean Smith, Warner or Bancroft were innocent. They were responsible for their actions and deserved punishment. But if Khawaja’s version is correct, it is difficult not to feel that the three players were left to face the consequences of a much wider team decision.
The third issue is Cricket Australia’s punishment. I agree that what happened in Cape Town was wrong. It damaged the reputation of Australian cricket and went against the spirit of the game. But I also feel that CA may have gone too far with its sanctions.
Ball tampering was not a new problem in international cricket. There had been other incidents before 2018, and the ICC’s immediate punishments in this case were considerably lighter than the bans handed out by Cricket Australia.
Perhaps Cricket Australia wanted to set an example. The board was dealing with a major reputational crisis and wanted to show that such behaviour would not be tolerated. However, in doing so, it arguably went beyond what was necessary. Three players ended up paying a particularly heavy price, and the Sandpaper Gate label followed them for years.
I am not defending what they did. But there is a difference between punishing players for wrongdoing and making them carry the entire burden of a team-wide controversy. If Khawaja’s account is accurate, that distinction becomes particularly important.
Finally, Khawaja’s revelation is significant because it makes something that many cricket followers had suspected much more explicit. People who followed the game closely and understood how reverse swing worked could have questioned the idea that only three players knew about the plan back in 2018 itself.
That does not mean the entire team’s involvement was officially established at the time. Usman Khawaja has now put forward his version, while the four bowlers have previously maintained a different position. But his comments have certainly reopened the debate.
Perhaps other players will eventually decide to share their versions of what happened in that dressing room. Until then, Smith, Warner and Bancroft will remain the three names most closely associated with the scandal, even as questions about the wider team’s involvement continue.
Khawaja’s Revelation Could Change How Sandpaper Gate Is Remembered
The comments by Usman Khawaja have reopened a controversy that Australian cricket had seemingly put behind it. His account challenges the original investigation and raises questions about the players who were never punished.
However, his claims should not automatically be treated as an official admission from every Australian player. The bowlers have maintained their denial, and Cricket Australia continues to stand by its original findings.
Do you think Cricket Australia didn’t know internally that the entire team was involved? Then why were only three players banned? Why, though?
What makes the revelation particularly important is Khawaja’s claim that he wanted the entire team to accept responsibility immediately after the incident. According to him, that did not happen, and three players ended up carrying the burden.
Eight years later, the question is no longer limited to what Smith, Warner and Bancroft did. It is also about what the rest of the Australian team knew, when they knew it, and why the original investigation reached a different conclusion.
Perhaps Sabr will provide more details, and perhaps other former teammates will eventually share their accounts. For now, Usman Khawaja has given the cricket world another reason to revisit one of the most controversial chapters in Australia’s history.
What are your thoughts on this whole sandpaper gate controversy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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