Khawaja says whole Australian touring party knew about sandpaper in 2018

Retired Australia batter Usman Khawaja has said the whole touring party knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball in South Africa in 2018. In extracts from his autobiography, Sabr, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, he put it simply: "It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us."

Ball tampering means illegally altering the ball's surface, usually to help it swing or reverse. Australian players were caught using sandpaper to scuff one side of the ball during the Cape Town Test, the third and final match of that series at Newlands. The affair led to bans for captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batter Cameron Bancroft.

Khawaja said talk of tampering began earlier, during the second Test at Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha. He said Australia had used the tactic in that match before the Cape Town game. BBC Sport reported those claims on the same day.

Khawaja also described a dressing-room moment. He wrote that Smith threw his hands in the air and said he did not want to know when the tampering was discussed. Khawaja said that during Cricket Australia's investigation, he was never asked to provide any evidence.

The account lands alongside an earlier statement. In 2021, fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, along with spinner Nathan Lyon, said in a joint statement that they did not know a foreign substance had been taken onto the field. That statement also said umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth inspected the ball after images appeared on television at Newlands. The umpires did not change the ball, as there was no sign of damage.

Khawaja's book was already known before its extracts appeared. On 8 October, Australia skipper Pat Cummins said he had spoken to Khawaja about the book and had no concerns about what it might reveal.

Khawaja played 88 Tests and scored 6,229 runs for Australia. It adds a first-hand voice from inside the squad to a story that has been told many times since 2018. For fans, the key point is who is speaking and what they say they saw. Those named in the 2021 statement have not, in the reporting available, responded to the new claims in the same terms.