Cricket Australia says it remains comfortable with its 2018 integrity findings, with Khawaja’s memoir Sabr due on sale on 10 November.
David Warner has said Usman Khawaja’s account of Australia’s 2018 ball-tampering scandal is “100% accurate”, and called Cricket Australia’s (CA) investigation into the affair “rushed and botched”.
The scandal broke during the third Test against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town, in March 2018, when television cameras caught opening batter Cameron Bancroft rubbing sandpaper on the ball. Roughing up one side of the ball helps it swing in the air.
Warner, who was Test vice-captain at the time, gave his backing in a video posted to Instagram on 9 November. It was his first public comment on the scandal in eight years, and he said he was throwing his “full support” behind his former opening partner.
Warner said Khawaja had been sitting next to Cameron Bancroft in the dressing room and was not interviewed by CA’s investigators. “How is that a thorough investigation? It baffles me,” he said.
He also addressed criticism of the timing of Khawaja’s comments, saying people were now asking “Why eight years on?” and talking about selling a book.
“Perhaps it’s time people stop scrutinising the person asking for accountability and start asking those responsible for the investigation to provide it,” Warner said.
Khawaja’s account
Khawaja set out his version of events in the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the release of his memoir, Sabr: Finding My Way in Cricket and Life, which Penguin Books Australia publishes on 10 November.
He said the whole squad knew sandpaper was being used on the ball during the third Test against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town, in March 2018. “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff,” he said.
Book excerpts published by Australian media describe discussions in the dressing room during the previous Test in Port Elizabeth about how to rough up the ball, and say Bancroft used sandpaper during South Africa’s first innings in the match.
Khawaja, who batted at No.3 in Cape Town, has said he was never asked to give evidence to the inquiry, which was led by CA’s then Head of Integrity, Iain Roy. “I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now,” he wrote.
He told Test captain Pat Cummins and CA CEO Todd Greenberg about the book’s chapter on the scandal before Australia left for last month’s Test series in South Africa.
Ball-tampering scandal original findings
CA’s investigation concluded only Warner, captain Steve Smith and Bancroft knew of the plan. Smith and Warner were each banned for 12 months and Bancroft for nine. Smith was also barred from captaining Australia for a further two years, while Warner received a lifetime ban from leadership roles.
Bowlers Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon said in a joint statement in 2021 they did not know a foreign substance had been taken onto the field. The statement followed a Guardian interview in which Bancroft, asked whether the bowlers knew, said it was “self-explanatory”.
All four bowlers remain in Australia’s Test side, which Cummins has captained since 2021. Before the South Africa tour, Cummins said the group had “moved on” and his focus was on captaining the team.
Cricket Australia’s position
CA has not said it will reopen the investigation. In a statement issued after Khawaja’s comments were published, the governing body said there had been an ongoing opportunity to present relevant information since the Cape Town Test and this remained the case.
“All relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process,” the statement said.
CA has not commented on Warner’s video.
