Whole team was involved in sandpaper scandal, claims Khawaja; Lehmann calls it a book-selling tactic

Former Australian star Usman Khawaja has dropped a fresh bombshell over the 2018 sandpaper scandal. He claims the whole Australian team knew in advance about the ball-tampering incident in the Cape Town Test.

Darren Lehmann, the team's coach at the time, has rejected Khawaja's claim. He also described it as a tactic to sell copies of Khawaja's autobiography, 'Sabar'.

Since retiring from international cricket, Khawaja has been revealing his past experiences one by one. His autobiography 'Sabar' is expected to contain more sensational revelations, and parts of the book that have already been published have sparked discussion.

In the 2018 Cape Town Test against South Africa, three Australian cricketers were found guilty of tampering with the ball by rubbing it with sandpaper. Khawaja now claims the whole team knew about the incident.

According to Khawaja, Australian cricketers had also used sandpaper in the second Test at Gqeberha before the Cape Town Test. But nobody brought the whole truth out into the open.

Speaking to the media outlet Nine, Khawaja said the matter was not limited to the batters, the bowlers or the support staff — everyone in the team was involved in it. He said it was a collective matter for all of them.

He added that he did not want to be the person who stepped forward to reveal the truth. But he believed that after eight years had passed, the truth would have come out by now.

During the 2018 Test against South Africa, Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft used sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball. He was banned from all forms of cricket for nine months over the incident.

Then captain Steven Smith was banned for 12 months for knowing about it and failing to stop it, while vice-captain David Warner was banned for 12 months for his involvement in planning it. Head coach Darren Lehmann also resigned after the incident.

After Khawaja's new claim, Lehmann told Australian broadcaster ABC that he did not think everyone knew about it. He said it was possible to know that ball tampering might happen, because it had been happening for 150 years. But how it was done was the real issue.

Lehmann said he could only speak about what he himself knew. In his view, ball tampering was once a big part of cricket, although it was not right, and they had paid a heavy price for it.

Lehmann believes Cricket Australia's investigation had all the evidence. He said going through the whole process at the time and speaking to everyone involved was very difficult. He was in a very bad mental state for a long time, and did not even leave his home for four months in a row.

In Lehmann's view, using the incident after eight years in an attempt to sell books is a different matter. It is Usman's own decision, and he wants to go down that path.

Lehmann said he felt bad for the families of those involved and for other people, because it takes them back to the memories of that painful experience. Eight years have passed, people move on with their lives at some point, and he too has moved on with his life.

On whether sandpaper was discussed inside the Australian team, Lehmann said he did not remember. Naturally, there were two dressing rooms and discussions of various kinds were going on everywhere. He said he had many meetings with Cricket Australia. It may have happened, he did not know. He was saying neither yes nor no on the matter. Everyone could have a different view of the whole thing.