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It’s just not cricket, and yet it was. Eight years ago, a small patch of sandpaper was rubbed against a cricket ball. Australia was playing a four-Test series against South Africa in South Africa. Coming into the third Test at Newlands in Cape Town, the series stood at one all. While the rivalry between the two nations does not equal the storied history of the Ashes, it goes back more than a century to 1902. Competition has been, is always, fierce.
On the third day of the Newlands Test, with Australia fielding, television cameras picked up Australian Cameron Bancroft taking a small yellow object out of his pants. Thus Sandpapergate was born. Ball tampering is illegal.
One of Australia’s players in that Test was Usman Khawaja. On Tuesday, his autobiography, Sabr , hit the shelves. In it, he writes that the entire team knew of tampering with the ball in the previous Test. In an exclusive interview with The Age last weekend, he said, “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.”
Khawaja asserts it was common knowledge among the players. Teammate David Warner has supported this claim. It was “100 per cent accurate”. This is at odds with a joint statement from 2021 by Australia’s four fast bowlers that it was not. However, Warner said this week, “Now everyone knows the truth. It’s out there. People wanted to know it. You’ve come out and said it.”
This goes against the conclusions and actions that Cricket Australia took in the immediate aftermath of the Test. Three people were punished. Warner was banned for a year, as was then captain Steve Smith. Bancroft was suspended for nine months. The investigation looked specifically at that one day at Newlands, and was done with such speed that it was finalised before the fourth Test of the series.
It is natural to be sceptical of timing in the release of books, such as biographies or memoirs (Australia’s international schedule starts this Friday against England in Perth), and what may be perceived as exercises in publicity. Khawaja addressed this on Tuesday: “Lots of people are saying that I used ‘sandpaper’ for my book sales … that is 100 per cent false,” he said.
It is certainly true the renewed controversy will generate discussion – and sell copies – of the former batsman’s book. It is therefore not entirely unreasonable to hold suspicions about the maintenance of his silence until this point.
Whatever the motivations for speaking now, we applaud Khawaja – and Warner – for speaking out. A truth delayed is surely better than a truth buried. Even if Khawaja’s version of events is contested, it should be explored as a possibility. And contested it is: fast bowler Mitchell Starc told reporters on Tuesday that his “recollection hasn’t changed from what we said in 2021”.
Australians like to think of their national sides as par exemplar of the Australian spirit: tough, never-say-die, keep fighting, fair, and above all honest. Khawaja writes that Australian cricket officials “tried their best at damage control and to cover up as much as they could”.
On Tuesday, Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg ruled out reopening the investigation into the 2018 sandpaper saga. CA was “comfortable” with its actions, saying other members of the team had different recollections to Khawaja’s. “There are specific details in his book that contradict the versions that have been provided by others ... it’s important to know that back at that time, players were urged to come forward, and they had the opportunity to do so over these past eight years, and that remains the case ... We don’t see any compelling reason to open the investigation or revisit this again, I don’t think there’s anything that can be gained from that.”
But Cricket Australia must reopen an investigation. The only way to restore that belief in the honesty of the national side is to wash the disinfectant of the truth through the past. The investigation in South Africa at the time was rushed. Khawaja was not even interviewed. Surely, an investigation into an incident involving a team requires each member of that team be questioned.
We agree with Warner’s point that to reopen an investigation would not be about opening old wounds. It would be about “accountability, transparency, ensuring that the truth is properly examined”. Indeed, who could argue against that? The marks made on that ball eight years ago have lasted long after the act. It is time to clear the air. To not do so, is to rub the whole truth the wrong way.
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