Usman Khawaja is unequivocal. “It was all of us,” he writes in his soon-to-be-published autobiography. “Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us… If you read my story, if you read what I’m saying, I have numerous times said it’s us, the team. This is the team. It’s not Steve, Davey and Bangers. It’s all of us.”
His account of the ball-tampering scandal that shook world cricket in 2018, and left Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft carrying the blame, threatens to trigger another crisis for Australia as the team enters an Ashes year. It could make one of the darkest chapters in Australian cricket even more damaging.
The three players admitted their involvement in using sandpaper to alter the ball during the third Test between South Africa and Australia at Newlands in Cape Town, bringing widespread disgrace upon the country.
Smith’s emotional apology at a subsequent press conference has since been repeatedly mocked, becoming entangled in wider debates about Australian masculinity.
All three received Test bans for their roles in the scandal. Khawaja’s revelations, however, not only reopen the wounds of an episode Australian cricket believed it had put behind it eight years later; they also raise the prospect of serious consequences for the bowling attack before the team travels to England for the Ashes.
The most explosive aspect of Khawaja’s account is his claim that Australia had tested similar ball-tampering methods during the previous Test in Port Elizabeth. Just as significant is his suggestion that most of the team avoided responsibility, despite his insistence that the entire group was complicit.
Cameron Bancroft (left), Steve Smith (right) and David Warner took the blame for the scandal, but Usman Khawaja now says the entire team knew about the cheating
The rest of the team, pictured during the Test at the centre of the scandal, could now face renewed scrutiny
That claim strikes at the foundations of Australian cricket because it challenges the idea of “mateship” within the team.
Khawaja’s version is that most of the players allowed three teammates to take the punishment when they should have accepted collective responsibility. They did not stand together. They let their mates face the consequences alone.
One player who stood by as Warner, Smith and Bancroft were condemned was Pat Cummins, who is now Australia’s captain. If Khawaja’s account is accurate, questions will inevitably be asked about Cummins’ authority and leadership. How can a captain who failed to uphold the spirit associated with the Baggy Green command the respect of the players he now leads?
If Khawaja’s claims are proven, Cricket Australia may also face pressure to punish the other players involved in that Cape Town Test. Warner and Smith were each suspended from Test cricket for 12 months. The same sanction could now be demanded for the rest of the team.
Team sport is built on shared responsibility, yet the four bowlers involved—who still make up the core of Australia’s attack—are accused of avoiding that responsibility together.
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They now find themselves at the centre of a fresh crisis as Australian cricket struggles to contain the fallout.
Khawaja appears partly motivated by regret that he did not defend his teammates when he believes he should have.
In his autobiography, he describes watching Warner “cop it” repeatedly for his role in the scandal while refusing to implicate anyone else. Warner, Khawaja suggests, chose to maintain a private sense of honour. Others did not.
Khawaja (left) has chosen to reveal his version of events in his forthcoming autobiography, putting fresh pressure on captain Pat Cummins (right)
The repercussions for Australian cricket are likely to extend well beyond the original scandal. In 2021, Australia’s bowlers in the Newlands Test—Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon—issued a statement denying that they knew a foreign substance had been used to alter the ball.
“We feel compelled to put the key facts on the record again,” the bowlers wrote.
“We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands.
“And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that ‘we must have known’ about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Long and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.”
Those statements will be examined closely in the coming weeks as Australian media outlets publish extracts from Khawaja’s book.
Smith said the scandal left him traumatised, pictured here with his father during his tearful public apology in Sydney
“Same old Aussies, always cheating” is a familiar chant from the Barmy Army during Ashes contests. It is certain to be heard more loudly now, with one of cricket’s most notorious scandals once again bringing shame upon Australia.
“At the end of the day,” Khawaja said, “I still think it’s the right thing to do for particularly those three guys—Warner, Smith and Bancroft. And I think most of the guys in the team, at some level, will be relieved that we can finally move on.”
That may be the hope, but the reality is that Australian cricket has been plunged into another painful crisis.