Cummins responds to Khawaja claims
Australian Test captain Pat Cummins has faced the media over claims made by Usman Khawaja over the sandpaper incident in 2018.
Australian captain Pat Cummins insists he had no knowledge sandpaper was being used during the infamous 2018 Test series in South Africa.
Cummins on Friday spoke publicly for the first time since former long-time teammate Usman Khawaja claimed the entire team – not just Cameron Bancroft, David Warner and Steve Smith – knew about the plan to tamper with the ball in the third Test in Cape Town.
“When he says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out in the field, he’s 100 per cent wrong,” Cummins told reporters in Sydney.
“I’ve said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening.
“But I think Usman actually says things that are actually far more serious than that. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper.
“That’s complete and utter nonsense.”
Cummins’ reaction to Khawaja’s explosive allegations comes after all four bowlers from the Newlands Test – including fellow quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and spinner Nathan Lyon – issued a joint statement in 2021 denying knowledge that a foreign substance had been taken onto the field to doctor the ball.
Starc earlier this week said his recollection of events had not changed, while Australian one-day captain Mitchell Marsh on Thursday said he had “moved on” and was not willing to share his views on the saga.
Marsh played in the Cape Town Test before being elevated to the vice-captaincy alongside Hazlewood later in 2018 after axed captain Smith and leadership group member Warner copped 12-month bans.
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Warner took to social media on Monday night to assert Khawaja’s dramatic relevations in his autobiography, Sabr, were 100 per cent correct.
Warner has also insinuated that Australia’s coach at the time, Darren Lehmann, either knew or should have known.
Chadd Sayers, a back-up bowler on the 2018 tour who played his one and only Test in the final match of the series in Johannesburg, is the only player this week to support Khawaja and Warner’s claims.
“I believe in what Uzzy said,” Sayers told Fairfax newspapers, adding that, like Khawaja, he wasn’t interviewed during the CA investigation in South Africa.
CA remains adamant it will not reopen the investigation.
-with AAP
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