Khawaja claims entire Australia team knew about 2018 ball-tampering scandal

Former opener Usman Khawaja claimed on Saturday that the entire Australian team knew about the 2018 “Sandpapergate” scandal in Cape Town and said they also employed the tactic during the previous Test at Port Elizabeth. Captain Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were sent home in disgrace and found by a Cricket Australia investigation to be the only three players with prior knowledge of the ball-tampering plot . Smith was banned for a year and sacked as skipper, Warner was suspended for 12 months and stripped of all leadership roles, while Bancroft was slapped with a nine-month ban.

Head coach Darren Lehmann was cleared of direct involvement but resigned ⁠soon after the series. “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff.

All of us,” he said ahead of the release of his autobiography next week, where a chapter is dedicated to the issue. Bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all denied publicly in 2021 that they knew about it.