The Khawaja Sandpapergate claim has reopened cricket’s most famous scandal. Usman Khawaja says the entire Australian team knew about the 2018 ball-tampering plot in Cape Town, eight years after only three players were punished for it.
The former opener said the team also used the tactic during the previous Test at Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha. His claim directly challenges the official account, under which only three players had prior knowledge of the plot.
Dawn reported, citing AFP, that Khawaja made the claim to the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the release of his autobiography next week, in which a chapter is dedicated to the issue.
Khawaja Sandpapergate claim: what he said
“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja said.
Khawaja, who retired this year after 88 Tests, said he urged the team in the dressing room to take collective responsibility rather than scapegoat the three players sent home.
“In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this,” he 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.”
He added: “Maybe I thought Davey (Warner) 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.”
What happened in 2018
The scandal broke during the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town in March 2018. Television cameras caught Cameron Bancroft using sandpaper to rough up the ball.
Captain Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and Bancroft were sent home in disgrace. A Cricket Australia investigation found them to be the only three players with prior knowledge of the plot.
The punishments were severe. Smith was banned for a year and sacked as captain. Warner was suspended for 12 months and stripped of all leadership roles. Bancroft was given a nine-month ban.
The bowlers, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, all denied publicly in 2021 that they knew about the plan.
The dressing room discussions
According to the newspaper, Khawaja’s book says discussions about roughing up the ball began in the dressing room during the second Test at Port Elizabeth.
It culminated in the discovery that sandpaper was effective. At that point, Smith allegedly walked away, saying he did not want to know about it.
Bancroft then allegedly volunteered to use sandpaper in South Africa’s first innings, where the ball swung significantly.
If that account is right, the plan was discussed openly before Cape Town.
Lehmann and Cricket Australia respond
Darren Lehmann, who was head coach at the time, denied there was widespread knowledge of the plot. He told national broadcaster ABC: “I don’t think everybody would have known. I can’t speak for them (the players) at all. I only know what I know, and I know that ball-tampering was a big part of the game of cricket.”
He added: “Now it’s obsolete, but that doesn’t make it right either and we paid a heavy price for that.”
Lehmann, who quit after the series, said Khawaja’s claims dredged up “bad memories” for him, the players and their families. “It’s been eight years. You get to a place where you move on, and I’ve moved on with my life,” he said.
Cricket Australia said in a statement it was “comfortable” with the findings of its original investigation, but remained open to new evidence. It said there had been “a great deal of speculation” in the eight years since the Cape Town Test, and that all information presented to it had been properly considered.
Why it still matters
Eight years on, the scandal still shapes how Australian cricket is judged. The question of who knew has never fully gone away.
Khawaja’s claim does not, on its own, prove that the whole team knew. It is one man’s account, published in a book, and the bowlers named have denied knowledge before. But it comes from a player who was in the dressing room, and it is specific about where and when the discussions took place.
The timing also matters. The claim has landed just as cricket turns to the home summer, and Pakistan are preparing for a Test series against Sri Lanka starting on November 9. The sport’s old wounds and its current questions sit side by side. Maaz Sadaqat, one of Pakistan’s young players, climbed 187 places in the ICC T20I rankings this week.
Wasim Akram declined a coaching role with the Afghanistan Premier League this week, and Salman Ali Agha has spoken about feeling less pressure as Pakistan captain.
Frequently asked questions
What has Usman Khawaja claimed about Sandpapergate?
Khawaja says the entire Australian team knew about the 2018 ball-tampering plot in Cape Town, and that the tactic was also used in the previous Test at Port Elizabeth. He makes the claim in his autobiography, which is released next week.
Who was punished over Sandpapergate in 2018?
Steve Smith was banned for a year and sacked as captain, David Warner was suspended for 12 months and stripped of leadership roles, and Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months. A Cricket Australia investigation found only the three had prior knowledge.
What has Cricket Australia said about Khawaja’s claim?
It said it remains “comfortable” with the findings of its original investigation, but is open to new evidence, and that all information presented to it has been properly considered.
What did Darren Lehmann say?
The former head coach denied widespread knowledge of the plot, telling ABC he did not think everybody would have known, while accepting that ball-tampering was once a big part of the game and that Australia “paid a heavy price for that”.
