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Pat Cummins has won big matches for Australia with both bat and ball. He has advocated on climate change, and stuck up for his teammates in the aftermath of Justin Langer’s axing as coach. Friday is as big a test of his leadership as those moments.
Cummins has nearly always met the moment in the 15 years since he was presented with his baggy green in Johannesburg. His task now as Test captain is to unite a dressing room and re-unify Australian cricket after a bruising week for the game.
For all the work Cummins and his teammates have done in rebuilding the reputation of the national men’s team, the prevailing view of the side, according to the Australian public this week, is they are cheats. Lying cheats as well.
To read the full opinion piece from Andrew Wu, click here.
Former Australian bowling coach David Saker has been accused of telling Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to lie in their infamous press conference in South Africa about the team’s use of sandpaper .
Eight years after one of Australian cricket’s most infamous episodes, more details are emerging about what allegedly occurred in South Africa following the release of Usman Khawaja’s autobiography .
Australia’s bowlers at the time, including current captain Pat Cummins, have been under the most scrutiny since Khawaja detailed his account of events, insinuating that the whole team knew about the tampering efforts and claiming sandpaper was also deployed in the match before the Cape Town Test near the boundary rope after breaks in play.
But the part played in South Africa by Saker, then the team’s bowling coach, has also been discussed behind the scenes since Khawaja’s book hit the shelves.
If you haven’t been paying attention this week and are wondering why a news story from 2018 has suddenly resurfaced, here’s where it all began and what’s happened since.
Last Saturday, chief cricket writer Daniel Brettig broke the first story regarding Usman Khawaja’s memoir, Sabr. Written three days before the book’s release date, Brettig spoke to the now retired batter about new allegations surrounding the 2018 scandal, namely that the entire Australian team knew of the use of sandpaper despite several players, notably the bowlers, having denied this in the years since.
Later that same day, a key figure involved in a player review after the scandal called on Cricket Australia to reopen an investigation into the use of sandpaper in 2018 before two days later, David Warner described Khawaja’s version of events as 100 per cent accurate.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of a what should be a significant morning of cricket news before Australia and England meet over an ODI in Perth at 2.30pm (AEDT).
But before the match, Australia’s test captain Pat Cummins will answer questions from the press regarding Sandpapergate.
On Thursday, Cummins invited members of the media to stop by the NSW Cricket headquarters in Sydney Olympic Park where he is training this morning ahead of the Sheffield Shield match between NSW and South Australia.
In his post on X, Cummins said he would answer questions relating to the 2018 ball tampering scandal which has made headlines again this week after Usman Khawaja released his memoir, Sabr.
In the meantime, we’ll catch you up to speed with the biggest stories regarding the book and Sandpapergate from this week.
