Usman Khawaja says Steve Smith talked him out of sharing blame for sandpaper plot

Usman Khawaja says Steve Smith talked him out of the Australia team taking collective responsibility for the sandpaper scandal in 2018.

Khawaja has claimed in recent days that players and coaching staff were aware of the ball-tampering that occurred in South Africa eight years ago, stating: “It was all of us.”

A huge scandal flared up in an ill-tempered series against the Proteas eight years ago, with television cameras clearly showing Cameron Bancroft using sandpaper to help generate reverse swing during the third Test in Cape Town.

The aftermath saw captain Smith and his deputy David Warner banned for a year while Bancroft, as a junior player, served nine months.

Until now, nobody else involved in the tour has ever admitted culpability.

The bowling unit of Pat Cummins – now Australia captain – Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon even released a statement in 2021 denying they knew anything about the tactic.

But Khawaja, who retired after last winter’s Ashes and is promoting his new autobiography, has reopened the story and delivered his own seismic recollections.

It is reported that the book will include an admission that the same tactic was first used in the previous Test at Gqeberha and that he was never interviewed by Cricket Australia in their subsequent investigation.

Former Australia coach Darren Lehmann denied Khawaja’s claims of widespread knowledge of the sandpaper plot, but acknowledged that ball-tampering was a “big part” of international cricket during the period.

However, in a lengthy two-part statement on Instagram, Khawaja insisted he had tried to get the team to share responsibility in the days after the event.

“Time to clear up some facts because the media is taking this to the moon as is to be expected,” Khawaja said.

“I stayed quiet yesterday but if you read my article you’d have seen, when I said it was all of us, that’s implying that whether we like it or not we are all responsible for what happened together. As a team, we need to take that collectively.

“I never speak on behalf of anyone else in my book – contrary to what the headlines in clickbait media would have you think.

“The only other thing that I think is really relevant, which I want to talk about, is the question why now?

“Well, because I’ve been trying to take this as a team right from the start. You can believe my story or not.”

Steve Smith was banned for a year after he took the blame alongside David Warner and Cameron Bancroft (Robbie Stephenson/PA) (PA Archive)

Khawaja claims he wrote everything down after the Cape Town Test and added: “When the other guys got their penalties I told Smudge (Smith) that I was going to come clean to the media.

“I couldn’t believe the penalty he got, but Smudge being the man and leader he was talked me out of it.”

Khawaja goes on to claim that he spoke to former Australia coach Justin Langer and Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg about coming clean in 2021 when the story resurfaced in the media.

“I was always conscious of putting my team first, but I’m not in that team anymore,” Khawaja added, before saying that Bancroft told him how difficult he found the team’s recent return to South Africa.

Speaking ahead of Australia’s recent Test return to South Africa, Cummins revealed that he had given Khawaja his blessing to revisit the past after taking a phone call from his former team-mate.

Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood have all been rested from this month’s white-ball series against England but Mitch Marsh, who played at Newlands, is set to serve as captain and is likely to face questioning on Khawaja’s revelations.