Australian Test captain Pat Cummins has rejected Usman Khawaja’s explosive claims about the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, calling the suggestion that he helped devise the sandpaper plan “complete and utter nonsense”. Cummins also said he was struggling to understand why a “friend” would make such serious allegations so casually.
Speaking during a lengthy press conference on Friday morning, Cummins said Khawaja was “100 per cent wrong” to suggest he knew sandpaper would be taken onto the field.
“I did not know that was happening,” Cummins said.
“Usman says that I and others were architects of a scheme to tamper with the ball using sandpaper.
“That is complete and utter nonsense.
“It’s something I’ve actually been grappling with over the last couple of days. Usman is a friend, but the way he has been so casual and flippant with people’s lives and reputations… I don’t think that’s okay, and I don’t think that’s what friends do.”
“So one of you is not telling the truth. Which one of you is not telling the truth?” a reporter asked.
“Well, that’s my story. So I think Usman is wrong,” Cummins replied, adding that he would not pursue legal action over the claims.
Australian Test captain Pat Cummins has responded to Usman Khawaja’s explosive claims about the sandpaper scandal.
“I did receive advice this week that some of the things said were probably defamatory, but I won’t be doing that. You have to move on. It’s been eight years, and I keep saying we’re moving on, so you have to draw a line at some point. No, I won’t be taking any action,” he said.
Cummins, who played in the 2018 Test against South Africa in Cape Town, said Khawaja was “100 per cent wrong” to claim every player knew sandpaper was being taken onto the field.
He did, however, acknowledge that the team involved in the series had an “ugly underbelly”.
“I think it had a win-at-all-costs mentality, an ugly underbelly, and there were too many silos within the team,” he said.
“The way we behaved on the field was quite abrasive. There was some arrogance and ugliness at times that didn’t sit right with me.”
Cummins also said sandpaper was commonly seen in dressing rooms, but insisted that was entirely different from taking it onto the playing field.
“It’s a very normal thing around the dressing room,” he said.
“We can go into more detail about that. But to then make the leap to saying we were going to use it to alter the ball out in the middle — no, I was not aware. That was news to me this week.”
Cummins said sandpaper was “normal” in training and dressing-room settings, but denied there was a “master plan” to use it during a match.
“There was no master plan to use illegal methods,” Cummins said. “I think that is something that hasn’t been discussed enough.
“People assume you went from completely legal methods to suddenly taking sandpaper, and that there must have been some huge master plan. But like the truth, that is not what happened.
“There was no grand plan, no team meeting and no bowlers saying, ‘This is what must happen.’
“We’ve moved on, but these are people’s lives. It was traumatic for some of them, and they have had to work through a lot to come out the other side.
“That is why I have been so disappointed and frustrated this week by how flippantly it has been handled.”
The pressure on Cummins to respond to Khawaja’s claims, published in his new memoir Sabr, had been building. This week, footage emerged of Cummins appearing to have an animated conversation with his wife, Rebecca, outside their home.
Cummins with his wife Rebecca and one of their children after a Test victory.
Cummins laughed off the apparent confrontation and revealed that his wife was actually angry with his former teammate.
“It’s very comical. Becky wears her heart on her sleeve,” he said.
“We weren’t having a spat. Becky was very frustrated, animated and really unhappy with Usman.
“She has always said to be honest, tell the details and put your washing away.
“I’ve been with Becky since well before that tour, so she has seen everything. She leaves it all with me.
“She was simply saying: show your emotion, because there are a lot of people here who are hurting.”
Cummins’ comments came as Cricket Australia continued to manage the fallout from the claims published in recently retired Test opener Usman Khawaja’s memoir Sabr.
In the book, Khawaja claims the wider Australian team and coaching staff knew about a plan to use sandpaper on the match ball during the 2018 Test series against South Africa in an attempt to produce reverse swing.
Roughing up one side of the ball with an abrasive substance such as sandpaper can help it reverse swing earlier than usual. However, Law 41.3 of the Laws of Cricket prohibits players from deliberately altering the physical condition of the match ball.
In his explosive new memoir, Khawaja claimed there was an organisation-wide conspiracy within Cricket Australia to tamper with the ball during the 2018 series against South Africa.
Cummins was part of the bowling quartet that said in 2021 they had no prior knowledge of sandpaper being used on the ball during play.
Footage showed opener Cameron Bancroft scuffing the ball with sandpaper during the 2018 Cape Town Test.
Bancroft then tried to conceal the sandpaper by placing it down the front of his trousers.
During the Cape Town Test, then-opener Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera using a small piece of sandpaper to rough up one side of the match ball.
After the match, Bancroft was banned from professional cricket in Australia for nine months, while captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner each received 12-month suspensions.
Members of the team and Cricket Australia have largely remained silent since the scandal. However, in a chapter of Sabr titled “Sandpaper”, Khawaja, who also played in the match, claimed the entire team knew about the plan.
Khawaja also alleged that sandpaper had been used during the second Test of the 2018 series in Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, which preceded the explosive Newlands match.
Unlike in Cape Town, Khawaja said the ball was roughened with sandpaper before the players went onto the field for a session of play.
Several of Khawaja’s former teammates have disputed his account of events surrounding the Test.
The four bowlers who played in the 2018 match — Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon — issued a statement in 2021 denying any prior knowledge that a foreign object would be taken onto the field in Cape Town.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Starc said his recollection of the events had not changed.
Left to right: David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, the three players sanctioned after the sandpaper scandal.
The three men received lengthy bans from Cricket Australia after the match.
A young David Warner and Usman Khawaja playing representative cricket in Sydney. Warner has voiced his support for Khawaja’s book.
The pair later formed a successful opening partnership for Australia.
“We weren’t aware that anything had been taken onto the field to tamper with the ball. We saw the sandpaper on the big screen in Cape Town,” Starc said.
“As far as the book is concerned, I haven’t read it and probably won’t read it. That is for Usman to elaborate on. I’ll stick to what I said five years ago and what I said at the time, eight years ago. Clearly, there are different versions from different people, and I’ll leave it where I left it back then.”
David Warner also entered the renewed controversy earlier this week, posting a video on Instagram in which he thanked his “brother” Khawaja and said everything in the book was “100 per cent accurate”.