Usman Khawaja has insisted he has not "thrown anyone under the bus" after excerpts from his autobiography claimed the entire Australia team knew about the ball-tampering scheme on the 2018 tour of South Africa. The Khawaja ball-tampering claims, published ahead of the release of his book, contradict Cricket Australia's long-standing position that only three players were involved.
Khawaja ball-tampering claims and the Warner promise
Khawaja, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, set out his account in a video on Instagram. He said he had made a promise to childhood friend David Warner to tell the truth, and that he was "absolutely 100 per cent unapologetic" for doing so.
Warner was banned alongside Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft after the Cape Town Test, where Bancroft was caught on camera roughing up one side of the ball with sandpaper to try to make it swing. Khawaja said the three "took the blame for all of us, and they're the victims".
He added: "These three guys deserve justice and I haven't pointed fingers at anyone." Khawaja said he was still searching for what he had been looking for all those years ago, and that the team, himself included, should take the blame together so it could move on once and for all.
Steve Smith and two attempts to come clean
Khawaja said he wanted to admit what the team knew in 2018 but was talked out of it by Smith, then captain. "He wanted to take the blame. I argued but he was having none of it," Khawaja said. He described it as the first time he tried to come out.
He tried again in 2021 after Bancroft said in a newspaper interview that it was "probably self-explanatory" that the bowling attack knew about the scheme. That attempt ended when Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood released a statement denying any knowledge of the plot.
"I wasn't going to go to war with those guys back then. I just wasn't comfortable. That's the truth," Khawaja said. He said he had always been conscious of putting the team first, and that his words no longer influence the side because he now speaks for himself.
Cameron Bancroft keen to move on
Khawaja also claimed Bancroft volunteered to use sandpaper on the ball in the Test before Cape Town, played in Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha. Beau Casson, Bancroft's coach at state side Western Australia, said the batter wants to let his bat do the talking.
"The situation's a long time ago. He's keen to move on and let his bat do the talking," Casson said after Bancroft scored 32 for Western Australia against England in Perth. England were warming up for a three-match ODI series against Australia starting on Friday.
Casson said Bancroft's handling of the past couple of weeks, and of the years gone by, "speaks volumes". Bancroft has made two appearances for Australia since Sandpapergate, both in the 2019 Ashes, and has recently said a Test return was unlikely at this stage of his career.
Where the accounts diverge
Cricket Australia has always asserted that only Smith, Warner and Bancroft knew about the plan. The four bowlers who played in Cape Town said in 2021 they had no knowledge of it. Khawaja's account, given without naming anyone beyond those already punished, sets a team-wide claim against both statements.
The original report on Usman Khawaja's comments was published by skysports.com.
