{"id":640821,"date":"2026-10-09T03:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/640821\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:48:11","slug":"pat-cummins-unfazed-by-prospect-of-khawaja-book-raising-sandpaper-scandal-tell-your-story-australian-ball-tampering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/640821\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Cummins unfazed by prospect of Khawaja book raising sandpaper scandal: \u2018Tell your story\u2019 | Australian ball tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pat Cummins has suggested he is unfazed by the prospect of the sandpaper scandal being raised in Usman Khawaja\u2019s autobiography, which will be the first from any Australian player who played in that 2018 Cape Town Test.<\/p>\n

Cummins confirmed that Khawaja had called to inform him he would be writing the book, which will be released days after the end of Australia\u2019s first Test tour of South Africa since the infamous match.<\/p>\n

How much will be written about the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Khawaja is a childhood friend of former opening partner David Warner, who was given a 12-month ban out of the ball-tampering scandal.<\/p>\n

At the time, Warner was painted as the architect of the ploy, with captain Steve Smith also suspended for a year and Cameron Bancroft nine months.<\/p>\n

There had been a report at the time that Khawaja had suggested the team should take joint responsibility over the incident, rather than just the three players.<\/p>\n

However, a Cricket<\/a> Australia investigation found no other player had knowledge of the plan to apply sandpaper to the ball, a point that has long been maintained.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s bowlers have also previously issued a statement denying their knowledge that \u201ca foreign substance\u201d would be taken onto the field.<\/p>\n

Umpires speak with Cameron Bancroft and Steven Smith at Newlands in 2018. Photograph: Gallo Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In his autobiography next month which has been penned without a ghost writer, there is no suggestion Khawaja will suggest anything other than what investigations found.<\/p>\n

Cummins was asked ahead of Friday\u2019s first Test in Durban if Khawaja had specified how much detail he would go into and if he would agree with his former teammates\u2019 version of events.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would have to ask him,\u201d Cummins responded. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a long time ago. All the investigations, everything was done back then. Answered every question a million times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was dealt with then, all I can say is as a group we\u2019ve moved on. Very happy with the last eight or nine years, how we\u2019ve been as a group and evolved. He didn\u2019t go into too much detail … As always it was \u2018no worries, you can tell your story, that\u2019s fine\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It has been hard to escape talk of the 2018 series in the lead up to the first Test.<\/p>\n

Cummins noted on Thursday there was a larger than normal media turn-out in Durban, with this also the battle between the world\u2019s top-two sides.<\/p>\n

Beyond the ball-tampering scandal, the 2018 series was littered with clashes between the two teams from the middle of the pitch to dressing-room stairwells.<\/p>\n

But tensions have thawed significantly since, with neither side expecting similar dramas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a big series that 2018, it was pretty full on,\u201d Cummins said. \u201cAfter that, I think pretty much every Test team in the world felt like they\u2019d made some adjustments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis group is quite a different group in how we approach playing, and I\u2019m really proud of how the guys have been since that 2018 series.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pat Cummins has suggested he is unfazed by the prospect of the sandpaper scandal being raised in Usman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-640821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}