Former England captain Nasser Hussain has labelled the renewed furore around Australia’s 2018 ball-tampering scandal ‘a complete mess’, with the controversy reignited by Usman Khawaja’s autobiography ‘Sabr’. The book, an excerpt of which was released on October 7, 2026, has thrust the Cape Town Test against South Africa back into public debate.
Khawaja, who batted in that infamous Test in Cape Town, asserts in the book that the entire Australian dressing room was aware of the sandpaper scheme, not merely the three players who faced official sanctions. Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera attempting to use sandpaper on the ball to generate swing, while then-captain Steve Smith and David Warner, deemed the architect of the plot, were also penalised. Smith and Warner each received a one-year ban, and Bancroft was suspended for nine months.
Khawaja further revealed that Cricket Australia never questioned him despite the fact that he was seated next to Bancroft in the Newlands dressing room at the time. He added that he had urged the team to accept collective responsibility before Smith talked him out of it. David Warner separately made an indirect reference to former Australia coach Darren Lehmann, implying Lehmann had prior knowledge of the sandpaper use.
“I think it’s a complete mess. Let’s be honest, for the history of the game, people have been trying to work out what to do with cricket balls to make it swing more, whether it be mints, sweets, throwing the ball to the ground on the bounce, Vaseline, dirt in pocket, whatever it might be,” Hussain said on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.
“[But] how a side thought it was okay to take sandpaper out, how no one before that in a meeting went, ‘I don’t think this is okay, I don’t think we’re doing the right thing’, how they thought they were going to get away with it with all the cameras around [I don’t know]. Then to lie about it after and for Cricket Australia not to speak to every player, not to speak to Khawaja who was sitting next to Bancroft. It just feels like a right mess,” Hussain added.
Hussain also challenged the notion that only the three players who were persecuted were culpable, referring to the camaraderie in the dressing room.
“The team, the baggy green, the mateship and all that stuff – that was what playing Australia was like, so for an Australian team to say, ‘no, it’s just those three’ when it was never going to be just those three [is surprising],” he said.
What did Michael Atherton say about Cricket Australia’s handling of Sandpapergate?
Former England captain Michael Atherton was equally critical of how Cricket Australia managed the fallout eight years ago. Atherton anticipated the press conference on Thursday, ahead of Australia’s first ODI against England, would ‘resemble a circus’, with Australia’s white-ball captain Mitchell Marsh, the only member of the current hosts’ squad who also featured in the Newlands Test in 2018, set to face questions.
Regular ODI skipper Pat Cummins has been rested for the series, along with Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. All three were involved in the sandpaper Test and, together with spinner Nathan Lyon, released a joint statement in 2021 denying prior knowledge of the plot. Atherton does not believe a fresh investigation is necessary following Khawaja’s claims.
“It was on the back of the team having become, and Khawaja talks about it in his book, slightly out of control, a bit unlikable and with a kind of win-at-all costs mentality. They handed down unbelievably heavy sanctions – I thought hard-to-justify sanctions – and left three players to take the rap. But it left questions unanswered, left the door open for it to come back to haunt them, which it is doing now. But I do think the particular point about not having people’s backs is the thing causing the most disquiet [in the Australia public] and will rumble on for a while yet,” Atherton said via the aforementioned source.
Australia’s on-field difficulties have compounded the off-field turbulence. They lost the Test series in South Africa 2-1, their first such tour of the country since the scandal. Out-of-form Marnus Labuschagne has been dropped ahead of the upcoming home series against New Zealand. Beyond that, Australia face a demanding schedule that includes a five-match Test assignment in India, the day-night 150th anniversary Test against England in Melbourne in March, and an away Ashes series in June and July.
“The schedule is brutal and unforgiving and already there’s cracks in that team. It doesn’t feel as though the team is robust enough to get through this period. This [the ball-tampering claims] is adding a little bit more fuel to the fire,” Atherton added.
What is the schedule for England’s white-ball tour of Australia?
England’s white-ball tour of Australia begins with the first ODI in Perth on November 13, followed by the second ODI in Adelaide on November 15 and the third ODI in Hobart on November 18. The T20I leg opens in Melbourne on November 21, with the second T20I scheduled for Carrara on November 24. The third T20I takes place in Brisbane on November 27, the fourth T20I in Sydney on November 29, and the fifth T20I in Canberra on December 2.
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