Warner says Cummins threw Khawaja under the bus. The captain of the underarm ball says Australian cricket is eating itself
Eight years after Cape Town, Australia's men's cricketers are fighting about it again, this time in public and with a home summer about to start. Usman Khawaja's memoir says the whole 2018 Test team knew about the sandpaper; captain Pat Cummins calls that nonsense; David Warner says Cummins hung Khawaja out to dry. Greg Chappell, who knows something about scandals that refuse to die, wants it stopped.
Three things to know
- Khawaja's memoir Sabr claims every player in the 2018 Cape Town Test knew of the plan to tamper with the ball. Cummins says the claim is "100 percent wrong".
- Warner, banned for a year over the scandal, backed Khawaja live on air during Friday's one-day international in Perth and called the original investigation "botched".
- Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening its inquiry, and Khawaja's book signing in Sydney's Merrylands on Saturday has been postponed by his publisher.
Greg Chappell has spent 45 years living with the underarm ball. On Saturday he told the current generation that Sandpapergate will be just as hard to shake, and that the fighting is making it worse.
“Mistakes have been made, I think you have to own them,” the former Australian captain said, warning against the game “eating itself” in a family spat. Asked whether the ball-tampering affair had overtaken his 1981 order to his brother Trevor to bowl the last ball of a one-day match along the ground, Chappell said it would probably be a while before anything topped it.
He said Australians had to believe Cummins when he says he did not know about the plan.
What started it?
Usman Khawaja’s memoir, Sabr, released this week. In a chapter on the 2018 tour of South Africa, the now-retired opener claims the entire team in the Cape Town Test knew sandpaper would be used on the ball, and that the tactic was used earlier in the series at Port Elizabeth.
He has also said he urged teammates in the dressing room after Cape Town to take collective responsibility rather than leave Steve Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft to carry the blame.
A Cricket Australia investigation in 2018 found only those three knew. Smith and Warner were banned for 12 months and Bancroft for nine.
What has Cummins said?
Plenty. At a 70-minute news conference at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday, the Test captain said Khawaja was “100 percent wrong” and called the idea that he and other players designed a tampering scheme “complete and utter nonsense”.
He accused Khawaja of being flippant with other people’s reputations, said he had no memory of the dressing-room speech, and admitted the 2018 side had a win-at-all-costs mentality.
Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon issued a joint statement in 2021 denying any knowledge of the plan. Starc has repeated that the bowlers did not know. Lyon, Hazlewood, Smith and Bancroft have stayed silent this week. Former coach Darren Lehmann and former batting coach Graeme Hick have both denied knowing.
Why did Warner weigh in?
A few hours after Cummins spoke, Warner was on air for Australia’s first one-day international against England at Optus Stadium in Perth. “I still stick by Uzzie,” he said, adding that Cummins had thrown Khawaja under the bus and that he would not let the matter lie until the truth came out.
It sets one of the three players punished in 2018 against the current captain, with Khawaja, Warner’s long-time opening partner, in the middle.
Does any of this change anything?
Not officially. Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening its investigation. What has changed is the noise: a scandal the team spent years rebuilding from is back on every sports bulletin in the week Australia’s summer gets under way.
Khawaja’s publisher has postponed a signing of the book that had been set for Merrylands, in Sydney’s west, on Saturday.
How we got here
The key moments that brought this story into focus. Open any moment for detail.
February 1981The underarm ball
Greg Chappell orders Trevor Chappell to bowl the final ball of a one-day match against New Zealand underarm at the MCG.
March 2018Cape Town
Cameron Bancroft is caught using sandpaper on the ball in the third Test against South Africa.
March 2018The bans
Cricket Australia bans Steve Smith and David Warner for 12 months and Bancroft for nine.
2021Bowlers deny
Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon say in a joint statement they did not know about the plan.
November 2026Sabr
Usman Khawaja's memoir claims the whole Cape Town team knew.
13 November 2026Cummins hits back
Cummins rejects Khawaja's claims; Warner backs Khawaja on air in Perth.
What happens next
Cricket Australia says it will not reopen the 2018 investigation. Lyon, Hazlewood, Smith and Bancroft have not commented. Khawaja's postponed Merrylands book signing has no new date yet, and the one-day series against England continues.
Sources
- VNN
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