Usman Khawaja has insisted he has “not thrown anyone under the bus” after extracts from his autobiography claimed the whole Australia squad shared in the ball-tampering scandal that brought bans for Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft in 2018.
The former opener, who retired from international cricket in January with 6,229 runs from 88 Tests, answered the backlash in Instagram videos on Sunday. Extracts from Sabr, due to be published this week, and an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald had carried the line that reopened the affair: “It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.”
‘They’re the victims’
Khawaja, 39, separated collective responsibility from individual accusation, and blamed the media for blurring the two.
“You would have seen when I mentioned it was all of us, that’s implying that whether we like it or not, we are all responsible for what happened together,” he said. “But now that everyone’s talking, am I going to deny that everyone knew? Nah, I won’t deny that, either. But I never speak on behalf of anyone else in my book, contrary to what the headlines in clickbait media would have you think.”
He said he held the book back until Australia’s series in South Africa had finished, which the hosts won 2-1 last month. “The guys that are currently in the team right now and the other people that were there on the South African tour, including me, we’re not the victims,” he said. “These three guys took the blame for all of us, and they’re the victims.”
Khawaja also addressed why he stayed quiet while still playing. He said he tried to speak out in 2018, but that Smith, then captain, “talked me out of it. He wanted to take the blame.”
“Call me a chicken or whatever you want, I didn’t know how to do it because I was still on the team,” he said. “How was I ever supposed to bring this up when I knew some of my team-mates didn’t want to talk about it?”
What the book claims, and who disputes it
Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper on the ball on day three of the Newlands Test in March 2018. Cricket Australia concluded that only the three players knew. Smith and Warner were banned for 12 months and Bancroft for nine, with Smith barred from leadership roles for two years and Warner for life, a sanction lifted in 2024.
Sabr challenges that finding on two fronts. It alleges sandpaper was first used a Test earlier at Port Elizabeth, where Bancroft volunteered and Smith “threw his hands in the air”. Those claims remain unproven. Khawaja, who batted at No 3 at Newlands and sat beside Bancroft during the match, also says investigators never interviewed him.
Warner has since backed that complaint. “This whole interview process was rushed and botched,” he said in his own Instagram video. “Ussie was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft. Ussie was not interviewed. How is that a thorough investigation?” He called Khawaja’s account “100% accurate” but did not say who knew what.
The sharpest conflict is with the 2021 joint statement from Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon: “We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands.” None of the four has publicly responded to the extracts.
Darren Lehmann, the head coach in 2018, told ABC: “I don’t think everyone would have known.”
Pressure shifts to Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia has given no indication it will reopen the investigation. “All relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process,” it said, while adding that the opportunity to present new information remains.
That stance has survived eight years of speculation, including Bancroft’s 2021 remark that it was “probably self-explanatory” the bowlers knew. What has changed is the source: two senior players from that squad are now publicly attacking the process, one of them among the three who were punished.
Khawaja’s account still stops short of proof against any individual, and his insistence that he speaks only for himself sits awkwardly beside “all of us”. Bancroft, through Western Australia coach Beau Casson, is “keen to move on and let his bat do the talking”, while Smith had not responded by Monday.
Khawaja says he wants a shared admission rather than fresh sanctions. “I’m still searching for what I was searching for all those years ago,” he said. “For us, me included, to take the blame together as a team, so we can all move on from this once and for all.”
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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