Cricket Australia says it stays snug with the findings of its investigation into the 2018 sandpaper scandal regardless of explosive new claims from Usman Khawaja that all the Australian group knew concerning the ball-tampering plot.
In its first response to Khawaja’s revelations, revealed on this masthead on Saturday, Cricket Australia defended its integrity course of and insisted all related data supplied to the governing physique had been correctly thought-about.
“There was a substantial amount of hypothesis within the eight years because the 2018 Cape City Take a look at, together with in depth media protection all through final month’s sequence in South Africa,” learn a CA assertion.
“Throughout this time there was the continuing alternative to current any related data, and this stays the case.
“All related data offered to CA to this point has been correctly thought-about and we stay snug with the findings of our integrity course of.”
Former Take a look at batsman Cameron Bancroft, who obtained a nine-month suspension for his position within the scandal, has learn Saturday’s article. He obtained a name from Khawaja giving him a heads-up relating to his newest claims in an interview forward of his guide launch subsequent week.
Bancroft has largely remained silent concerning the occasions of 2018, though he recommended in a 2021 interview that it was “self-explanatory” whether or not Australia’s bowlers knew concerning the ball tampering.
Khawaja’s account instantly challenges the findings of Cricket Australia’s investigation, which concluded that solely David Warner, Steve Smith and Bancroft had prior data of the plan to make use of sandpaper on the ball at Newlands.
The retired Take a look at batsman claims sandpaper was first mentioned and used throughout the previous Take a look at in Port Elizabeth, now referred to as Gqeberha, relatively than Cape City, the place Bancroft was caught on digicam concealing the fabric in his pants.
“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the employees. All of us,” Khawaja mentioned.
Khawaja, who compiled notes after the scandal erupted, additionally questioned why he was by no means interviewed by Cricket Australia regardless of sitting beside Bancroft within the Newlands dressing room.
“I used to be sitting subsequent to Cam Bancroft that complete Take a look at match, and I didn’t get interviewed,” he mentioned.
The revelations have renewed scrutiny of Australia’s bowling quartet of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, who issued a joint assertion in 2021 denying data of a international substance being taken onto the sector in Cape City to change the situation of the ball.
Khawaja believes Warner, Smith and Bancroft had been unfairly singled out for punishment when all the group ought to have accepted duty.
Tom First rate is the chief sports activities author for The Sydney Morning Herald.Join through X or electronic mail.