Khawaja breaks silence on Sandpapergate: 'I haven't thrown anyone under the bus'

Former Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has said he has not "thrown anyone under the bus". He spoke a day after an excerpt from his autobiography claimed the entire team had known about ball-tampering during the 2018 tour of South Africa.

The incident, known as Sandpapergate, happened during the March 2018 Test in Cape Town, when Australia scuffed the ball with sandpaper. It sparked a major integrity crisis for Cricket Australia.

Captain Steve Smith and batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who was caught with the sandpaper in his pocket, were banned for their part in the scandal.

In a video posted on Instagram on Sunday, Khawaja said he had wanted to "come clean" about the incident since 2018. "I haven't thrown anyone under the bus," he said.

Khawaja, 39, retired from international cricket in January this year. He said: "The guys currently in the team and the other people who were there on the South African tour, including me, we're not the victims. These three guys [Bancroft, Warner and Smith] took the blame for all of us, and they're the victims."

Khawaja said he had spoken with the three players and promised Warner he would share his side of the story. "These three guys deserve justice, and I haven't pointed fingers at anyone," he added.

Defending waiting so long to make the claims, Khawaja denied it was a marketing ploy to sell his book. He said he wanted to go public in 2018 once Smith, Warner and Bancroft were suspended.

But Smith talked him out of it. "But Smudge [Smith] being the man and leader he was, he talked me out of it," Khawaja said. "He wanted to take the blame. I argued with him, but he was having none of it. That's the first time I tried to come out."

He said he again almost spoke up in 2021, when bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all denied publicly that they knew about the ball-tampering. But after extensive talks with then-coach Justin Langer, he decided not to, he said.

Khawaja said he never felt comfortable talking after that while back in the Australian team from 2022. "Call me a chicken or whatever you want. I didn't know how to do it because I was still in the team," Khawaja said. "I was always conscious of putting my team first, but I'm not in that team any more."

He added: "I'm still searching for what I was searching all those years ago: For us – me included – to take the blame together as a team so we can all move on from this once and for all."

Australia's Test side returned to South Africa for the first time since 2018 last month and were beaten 2-1 by the hosts in the three-match series, which was overshadowed in part by discussions of the scandal and the upcoming release of Khawaja's book.

Khawaja, who retired after 88 Tests, has brought the 2018 episode back into discussion with the excerpt and the video.