Former Australia opener Usman Khawaja has claimed that the entire Australian team knew about the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball during the 2018 Test series against South Africa, including the match before the infamous Cape Town Test. In extracts from his autobiography, Sabr, published by the Sydney Morning Herald, the 39-year-old alleged that the team had discussed and used the tactic during the second Test at Port Elizabeth, now known as Gqeberha.

“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja told the newspaper.

The scandal, known as ‘sandpapergate’, erupted during the third Test in Cape Town when television cameras caught Australian batter Cameron Bancroft using sandpaper on the ball to generate reverse swing. The incident led to bans for then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Bancroft. However, Australia’s bowlers, including current Test captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, have consistently denied knowing about the plan.

In a joint statement in 2021, the four bowlers said they “did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field” until they saw the footage on the stadium’s big screen. Former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann, who resigned after the scandal despite being cleared of wrongdoing, has also rejected Khawaja’s claims. “I don’t think everyone would have known,” Lehmann told ABC Sport, adding that although ball-tampering had been part of cricket for generations, that did not make it right.

Khawaja said discussions about tampering began during the second Test at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. He described open conversations in the dressing room that led to the “discovery of sandpaper as an effective agent”. “At this point Smith essentially threw his hands in the air and said he didn’t want to know,” Khawaja wrote. Australia were exposed in the following Test when cameras captured Bancroft using sandpaper on the ball. Khawaja also expressed surprise that Cricket Australia had not sought his evidence during its investigation, BBC reported.

“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,” he said.

“The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now.”

The allegations have renewed questions about how the Australian bowlers failed to notice the change in the ball’s condition.

In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Bancroft was asked whether the bowlers knew about the plan. He replied that it was “pretty probably self-explanatory”. The four bowlers later issued a statement rejecting the allegations, saying they had not known about the use of a foreign substance. They also noted that umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth had inspected the ball after the footage emerged but had not found sufficient damage to replace it.

“We respectfully request an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo. It has gone on too long and it is time to move on,” they said.

Before Australia’s recent Test series in South Africa, Cummins said he had spoken to Khawaja about the book. He said Khawaja had given him a heads-up about its contents but had not gone into detail. “Tell your story. It’s fine. It’s obviously a long time ago and all the investigations, everything was done back then and we answered every question a million times,” Cummins said on 8 October.

Cricket Australia said there had been extensive media coverage and speculation about the incident over the past eight years. It added that all relevant information had been considered and that it remained comfortable with the findings of its integrity investigation.

Khawaja said he had urged the team to accept collective responsibility after the Cape Town Test.

“I said: ‘Take this as a team. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we have to take it as a team’,” he wrote. “Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified.”

In Sabr, an Arabic term referring to patience, resilience and endurance, Khawaja dedicated the chapter on the incident to Smith, Warner and Bancroft. He said the three deserved to have the team’s collective responsibility acknowledged rather than being left to shoulder the blame alone. “None of those three want to be the first to say anything. And rightly so, it will just be hearsay and ‘their word’ if they do. They needed someone else to say something,” Khawaja wrote.

“But I’m not doing this for any other reason than I think it’s the right thing to do.”