Khawaja says whole Australian touring party knew about 2018 ball-tampering

Former Australia opener Usman Khawaja says the entire touring party knew about a plan to tamper with the ball during the 2018 tour of South Africa. The claims come from extracts of his memoir, Sabr, and he has defended his decision to speak out now.

Ball-tampering means changing the ball's surface to help it swing through the air. In 2018, Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball in Cape Town, and Steve Smith and David Warner were among those punished. Khawaja's account goes further than that scandal did at the time.

According to the memoir extracts, sandpaper was used on the ball in the dressing room during the second Test at St George's Park, in Port Elizabeth. Khawaja claims that Bancroft volunteered to use the altered ball after teammates saw how much it swung. He also alleges that a member of the coaching staff encouraged Bancroft to step up what he was doing. Khawaja says he would "not deny" that everyone knew about the tampering, and that the team had sandpaper in use before Cape Town.

Khawaja says he told Smith in 2018 that he planned to come clean to the media. He says Smith talked him out of it. In 2021, Khawaja says, he spoke to then-coach Justin Langer and Todd Greenberg about the team taking collective responsibility for what happened.

The timing has drawn attention. Khawaja said he held the book back until after Australia's Test return to South Africa last month. He also said he had made a promise to Warner to reveal the details of the saga once both men had retired. Khawaja explained his reasons in a five-minute Instagram post, split into two parts.

Defending himself, Khawaja said: "I haven't thrown anyone under the bus." He argues that he is speaking about a shared failure, not pointing blame at individuals.

Those are Khawaja's claims. Smith, Warner, Bancroft and the unnamed member of the coaching staff are all linked to events he describes, and none of the new allegations has been tested in any formal inquiry. Anyone following the story should keep that in mind as more reaction comes in.

For cricket fans, the story reopens a painful chapter. The 2018 affair led to bans and public anger, and it left a lasting mark on Australia's reputation. Whether these new details change how that period is understood will depend on what the players and officials involved say next.