'We did this as a team': Usman Khawaja opens up on Australia's 2018 sandpaper scandal

Former Australian batter Usman Khawaja has claimed that the entire Australian team, including players and support staff, was involved in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal during the South Africa tour. The 39-year-old said the responsibility should have been shared by everyone, instead of being placed solely on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, as concluded by Cricket Australia (CA). He added that he had expected the truth to come out over the past eight years and decided to speak up so the three players would not continue to carry the blame alone.

For years, the accepted version of the 2018 scandal was that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were the only ones involved. Smith and Warner were handed 12-month bans from international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.

“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us. In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now,” Khawaja told Nine, as per ESPNcricinfo.

“Maybe I thought Davey would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn’t think it was going to come down to this. But the longer it’s gone on for, and right from the very start, I’ve been on the train of collectively taking it,” he added.

Khawaja revealed that he had asked his teammates to accept collective responsibility for the incident, as everyone knew what was happening. He was disappointed that only three players were held accountable.

“Even in the change rooms when I was talking to them after the game. I said, ‘Take this as a team’. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we had to take it as a team, and so I was always of that stance. Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified. I’ve seen Davey over the last eight years just get nailed bad over and over again, and it’s taken a big man not to say anything and just to stay quiet,” Khawaja added.

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The former opener also spoke about how the scandal affected Bancroft and Smith, saying Bancroft has found it difficult to return to the Test team despite scoring consistently in domestic cricket. Meanwhile, Smith managed to rebuild his career but still remembers the events of 2018.

“And then ‘Bangers’ Bancroft, in the same note, particularly, he played a little bit of Test cricket after that, but then never came back in, even though he’s been scoring a lot of runs. He’s been a terrific cricketer for a long time, but I know it’s something that hangs over his head,” Khawaja said.

“Even Steve Smith. Steve’s lucky, the greatest batsman of my generation. He came back from that, and he’s come back as good as he ever was in that first Ashes series, and it’s kind of been forgotten for him in some respects. But I know he has never forgotten that year and how it all panned out,” he added.

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Khawaja said his decision to speak publicly was based on his belief that the three players deserved justice. He also explained that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were unlikely to speak first because their statements could be dismissed as hearsay.

“But I’m not doing this for any other reason than I think it’s the right thing to do. I’ve always felt like there’s more to life than just cricket, and these guys, in some respect, deserve that justice. And it just doesn’t feel like anyone’s going to give it to them. None of those three wants to be the first to say anything. And rightly so, it will just be hearsay and ‘their word’ if they do. They needed someone else to say something,” he said.

Khawaja further claimed that Cricket Australia did not interview him during its investigation into the scandal. The inquiry was led by then head of integrity Iain Roy and team performance manager Pat Howard following the Cape Town Test.

“I was sitting next to Cam Bancroft that whole Test match, and I didn’t get interviewed. I thoroughly feel that I didn’t get interviewed because of that, because they knew that I wanted to take it as a team, because they knew I was ready to tell the truth if I was interviewed,” he concluded.

With inputs from agencies