Category: Cricket

Australian cricket captain breaks silence over allegations in Usman Khawaja’s book about 2018 ball tampering in South Africa

After a torrid week, Australia’s Test captain, Pat Cummins, promised he would answer every question thrown at him in one of the most eagerly anticipated press conferences in recent sporting memory.

And, over the course of 70 minutes at Cricket Central in Sydney, he did just that, covering a range of topics from sandpaper and ball tampering to Australian cricket culture and his friendship with Usman Khawaja, whose book Sabr, released on Tuesday, has caused ructions in the Australian cricket community.

Australia captain can confront ball tampering scandal with transparency about former team environment and how its members made their choices

In March 2018, Steve Smith was handed a shit sandwich by Cricket Australia. Smith had helped in its preparation, as captain of an Australia team whose ball tampering experiments on their tour of South Africa had got out of control, but it was always questionable that CA limited the blame to Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Usman Khawaja’s recent revelations have added context that Smith adamantly took the fall to spare others. It is not in truth good leadership to perpetuate a lie, but Smith would reasonably have believed that his first job was to protect his men. Sometimes, you just have to tuck in.

Eight-and-a-half years later, current Test captain Pat Cummins has been handed a shit sandwich of his own. This one is in the form of Khawaja’s book, detailing the 2018 team’s widespread acceptance of ball tampering. Khawaja got to enjoy his full playing career before this reveal, which has denied the same luxury to active players Cummins, Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. That doesn’t make Khawaja’s actions wrong. It’s a miracle the stitched-up version of events lasted this long. From day one, nobody involved had the courage to simply speak the whole truth. That’s the sole reason this saga continues.

• Book tour will still go ahead but with changes this week’s schedule

• Khawaja evasive when questioned on ABC’s 7:30 Report

Usman Khawaja’s promotional book tour has been subject to “adjustments” after the former Australia Test batter was grilled about certain claims on the ABC’s 7.30 Report.

Khawaja pulled out of some radio and television spots on Wednesday, with his publisher Penguin saying that while the tour had not been cancelled entirely, changes had been made to his schedule this week.

The interminable sandpaper scandal will drag on to the next press conference, social media post or book, until it festers into something much bigger than it needs to be

There are some stories that you look back on and wonder whether we lost our collective minds. In Australia, 2018 was not a good year for banking executives, for prime ministers, for oily lord mayors and for cardinals. But the greatest betrayal of trust apparently concerned our national cricket team. There was public bawling, righteous indignation, weasel words and sanctimonious pieties. Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, flanked by a doleful Angus Taylor and a nodding firefighter, called it a “terrible disgrace”. “They now have to make sure this great national game, this great international game that is synonymous with fair play, is once again played by champions that everybody can look up to.”

Turnbull was more of a sailing man anyway. His parliamentary tenure was the political equivalent of Graeme Hick’s cricket career. By the time he’d been punted from office four months later, the Australian cricket team was being reimagined. The Ethics Centre’s 116-page document used the “Everest Process” to ascertain Cricket Australia’s alignment with its ethical framework. There were lots of charts asking how well CA was adhering to this value or that. “Mostly not lived”, “sometimes lived” and “always lived” were some of the measures. One could have saved a lot of time, money and paper and simply concluded “don’t be a prick, don’t bark like a dog when an opponent is dismissed, and don’t shove sandpaper down your dacks”.

Marnus Labuschagne has found himself in Test cricket exile — but a pair of legends believe the talented batsmen will “succeed” at the domestic level before returning to selection equations.

Marnus Labuschagne has found himself in Test cricket exile — but a pair of legends believe the talented batsmen will “succeed” at the domestic level before returning to selection equations.

Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has said that his recollection of the events of Sandpapergate have not changed.

Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc has said that his recollection of the events of Sandpapergate have not changed.

Scott Boland brushed off Usman Khawaja’s claim that his home state Victoria once perfected the “dark arts” of ball-tampering, while Vics captain Will Sutherland has denied the technique is a part of Sheffield Shield cricket anymore.

Scott Boland brushed off Usman Khawaja’s claim that his home state Victoria once perfected the “dark arts” of ball-tampering, while Vics captain Will Sutherland has denied the technique is a part of Sheffield Shield cricket anymore.

Axed Australian star Marnus Labuschagne has declared he has “no doubt” he’ll return to the country’s Test team, opening up on how he plans to embrace the opportunity to earn his way back into the international fold.

Axed Australian star Marnus Labuschagne has declared he has “no doubt” he’ll return to the country’s Test team, opening up on how he plans to embrace the opportunity to earn his way back into the international fold.

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg believes there is “absolutely no benefit” in reopening an investigation into the country’s infamous 2018 Sandpaper-gate scandal.