Usman Khawaja has revealed he didn’t tell David Warner the contents of his book until two months ago, but made a promise to his childhood friend six years ago to right the wrongs of Sandpapergate once he had a “safe space” to do so.
The retired Test star has kick-started a civil war in Australian cricket, claiming that the entire 2018 team knew about the ball-tampering plot in South Africa.
Usman Khawaja, David Warner and Steve Smith. Getty
Khawaja’s allegations have been backed by close friend Warner and former teammate Chadd Sayers, while others at the centre of the scandal – most notably, Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith – are yet to comment.
On the flip side, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc have both stood firm, denying any knowledge of the use of sandpaper during the Cape Town fixture.
There has been plenty of criticism levelled towards Khawaja for the timing of his reveal, with many questioning the Pakistani-born star’s motives.
In a new interview, Khawaja said that if he didn’t speak up in his autobiography, that he “won’t get an opportunity again” to tell the truth.
“I was very open in saying I don’t want to be the first person to come out and talk about this,” Khawaja told the They Used To Be… podcast.
“It’s not what I wanted, but I felt that right from the very start I gave an account of me wanting to take it as a team … wanting to come out, but being talked out of coming out by myself from Steven Smith and then wanting to come out in 2021.
“I’ve always felt like we’re a team – we win together as a team, we lose together as a team, and we take everything as a team – that’s always been my philosophy. When is the right time? The way I felt was, I won’t get an opportunity again.
“I had a safe space to write it in my book, I wrote it down and went over it over and over again, to make sure that what I put out at the end was what I wanted to say to the public. I didn’t think I could ever say it properly in a podcast, on TV, in a newspaper article, wherever it might be. This was my chance to do it in a safe space and I never felt like I had a safe space to do it in before.”
Khawaja then explained why he wrote everything down during the ordeal, despite a thinly-veiled swipe from Cummins in his extraordinary press conference last week, where he said he would never take notes about his teammates.
“Sandpaper didn’t just happen overnight, I wrote a whole bunch of stuff down days after it happened,” the former Aussie batsman explained.
“So much happened that I didn’t want to forget and I also thought, I had this thing and did it again a year later, where it would be more of a cleansing thing for my mind to get it out of my mind onto a piece of paper, then I could let it go.
“Part of me was also like, I don’t want to forget what happened. I didn’t write it down because I wanted to write a book … I didn’t look at it again for years.”
Khawaja said the idea to start writing a book came after Ben Stokes’ match-winning performance in the 2019 Ashes game at Headingley, where he again wrote down details to try and figure out how Australia managed to lose the Test.
From there, he went back over his journey from the start and began piecing together parts of his life and career for a future biography.
Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja were elevated within the Australian Test cricket team and earned tens of thousands in match payments while their teammates were banned for ball tampering. Getty
During the process of writing his book, Khawaja started to go back over his notes from Sandpapergate, but reiterated he had full control over whether he would include it in his book Sabr or leave out that chapter entirely.
But it was a promise six years ago to Warner that made his decision easier. Despite this, Khawaja revealed he only shared details with Warner two months before the book hit shelves.
“I had promised him for ages, because he’s had to carry this for eight years. I didn’t tell David Warner what was in my book until two months ago,” he said.
“If you’ve read the chapter, a lot of it is dedicated to Bull or Davey in a lot of ways and I only told him two months ago.
“There’s a period of time from 2020 when I sent a text message to 2026, where we barely discussed it — but I made a promise to him in 2020 and I stuck to it.
“I text him two months ago and he had no idea I was writing it, he was shocked. I was fighting with what I was gonna put in the book the whole time.
“I’ve stood up for the three guys [Warner, Smith and Bancroft] who I feel like were treated unfairly, but there’s other guys still playing in the team right now that it might be some sort of cost [for them]. I tried my best to balance that out.
Usman Khawaja and David Warner. Getty Images
“I’m not playing the victim here, because I knew what I was getting into and knew what was coming, I just didn’t realise it would be so personal.
“I’ve given the facts and think whatever you want now. I could have taken the sandpaper chapter out any time I wanted, I had full control.”
Khawaja torched the punishments handed down to the three players and says until the entire Test squad from 2018 takes collective responsibility, the ongoing turmoil facing Cricket Australia will “keep rearing its ugly head”.
“The penalties that happened to these guys were grotesquely overboard,” he said.
“The reason I say this is because the ICC gave them the penalties. Smith got a game and 100 per cent of his match fee, Bancroft got 75 per cent of his match fee and David Warner got nothing, because he didn’t do anything.
“No one had ever gotten these penalties before … the benchmark should be ICC penalties. Cricket Australia went over the top and I go into details about why I think that happened and the context of what made that happen.
“As I said before — we win as a team, we lose as a team and we take this as a team. I think if we genuinely do that and there’s an opportunity to do that, we can move forward once and for all, but I don’t think we’ve ever done that.
“That’s why we keep coming back to this over and over again, speculation just keeps rearing its ugly head.”
Khawaja confirmed he also spoke with Todd Greenberg prior to the release of his book and maintains a strong relationship with the Cricket Australia boss.