Usman Khawaja says entire Australia cricket team knew of 2018 plot

Usman Khawaja States Entire Australia Cricket Team Knew of 2018 Ball-Tampering Plot

Khawaja asserted that the illicit tactic was also deployed during the preceding Test match at Port Elizabeth.

The 2018 incident disrupted international cricket when captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner, and batsman Cameron Bancroft were sent home from South Africa in disgrace. A subsequent investigation by Cricket Australia concluded that only those three individuals possessed prior knowledge of the plot. Smith and Warner received 12-month suspensions and were stripped of leadership roles, while Bancroft served a nine-month ban.

Khawaja Autobiography Details Port Elizabeth Discussions

Ahead of his upcoming autobiography release, Khawaja dedicated a chapter to the controversy, stating that the responsibility extended far beyond the three sanctioned players. “It was all of us. Excluding neither players nor coaching personnel, All of us, he said, adding: In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now. Maybe I thought Davey (Warner) would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn’t think it was going to come down to this. As the publication notes based on Khawaja’s writings, conversations regarding methods to alter the ball condition originally took place inside the dressing room during the second Test at Port Elizabeth—currently designated as Gqeberha—ultimately leading to the realization that sandpaper worked effectively.

Following the Cape Town Test, Khawaja urged the team in the dressing room to accept collective accountability rather than allowing Warner, Smith, and Bancroft to act as sole scapegoats. He noted that he expected the full truth to emerge naturally over the ensuing eight years.

Bowlers and Former Coach Dispute Team Awareness

High-profile members of the bowling attack—including Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon—publicly denied any awareness of the ball-tampering plot during media appearances in 2021. Darren Lehmann, who served as head coach during the 2018 tour and resigned in the aftermath, also disputed widespread team awareness while acknowledging that ball-tampering was once common across international cricket. I don’t think everybody would have known, he told national broadcaster ABC. I can’t speak for them (the players) at all. I only know what I know, and I know that ball-tampering was a big part of the game of cricket. Lehmann also claimed that ball-tampering is now obsolete, though that does not make it right either, noting that the team paid a heavy price for it.

Based purely on my personal awareness, I am certain that manipulating the ball constituted a major element of cricket.

Cricket Australia responded to the fresh disclosures by issuing a statement affirming confidence in its original integrity process.