Australia captain Cummins to speak Friday on Khawaja's 'Sabr' ball-tampering claims

Australia cricket captain Pat Cummins will face reporters on Friday morning to speak for the first time about the ball-tampering allegations raised in former teammate Usman Khawaja's autobiography. Cummins posted on social media that he would speak to reporters at 9.30am at Cricket NSW's headquarters in Sydney.

Cummins wrote that he would be training at Cricket Central on Friday morning before the Blues play in the Shield match and was happy to speak with any and all media about the events of this week. He said he had taken some time to try to better understand the long list and full extent of Khawaja's allegations so he could respond properly.

Khawaja's autobiography is titled 'Sabr: Finding My Way in Cricket and Life'. In the book, Khawaja alleged that the use of sandpaper to tamper with the ball was widespread, happened earlier in the 2018 series against South Africa, and that the entire team knew about it.

According to Khawaja's allegation, the tampering also happened earlier in the series at Port Elizabeth. Cummins had not commented until now; Friday's press conference will be his first public response.

The original incident took place in 2018 during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town. Australia's opening batter Cameron Bancroft was caught on television using sandpaper against one side of the cricket ball.

An investigation revealed the tampering was planned by the captain, Steve Smith, and vice-captain, David Warner. Smith, Warner and Bancroft all received bans from international and local cricket.

Earlier this week, fast bowler Mitchell Starc broke his silence on Khawaja's claims. Starc denied the claims, saying he was not aware that sandpaper was used in the Test before Cape Town, nor during the Newlands match, and that he was not aware anything was taken on to the field to be tampered with.

Starc said his recollection had not changed from what the bowlers said in a statement issued in 2021, which denied all knowledge of the ball-tampering plan. He said: 'As far as our statement said, we weren't aware of things being taken on the field, that's where I'll leave it. We saw the sandpaper on the big screen in Cape Town.'

Starc also said he had not read Khawaja's book and probably would not read it. He said it was for Usman to elaborate, and that he would stick to what he said five years ago and at the time, eight years ago. He acknowledged there were different versions from different people.

Writing for the Guardian this week, Gideon Haigh said the greatest shame of the controversy inflamed by the memoir was that 99 percent of those opining about it would never read it, and would experience it through quotes and summaries. Haigh described Sabr as a readable, surprisingly revealing and sometimes painfully frank book about a unique career.

Haigh said Khawaja was among the most talented batters in an Australian generation, but played in only 22 percent of the national team's total fixtures over that period. He noted that while Sabr might mean patience or resilience in Urdu, Khawaja allows impatience to show through in the book.