Khawaja's claim is '100 percent wrong', Cummins hits back in the sandpaper row

Australia captain Pat Cummins has expressed anger at Usman Khawaja's allegations over the 2018 sandpaper scandal. He has directly rejected Khawaja's claim that the whole team knew about the ball-tampering plan.

The recently retired Khawaja has brought the old controversy back into the open in his autobiography, published this week. He claims the whole Australia team knew about the plan to alter the condition of the ball with sandpaper to increase swing. He has even claimed that Cummins knew about it.

Cummins gave a strong reply to Khawaja's remarks at a press conference on Friday. He said that if Usman means everyone knew sandpaper was being taken onto the field, then he is 100 percent wrong. He has been saying the same thing for the past eight years: he did not know anything like that was happening.

The Australia captain objected to another part of Khawaja's allegation as well. Cummins says Khawaja has portrayed him as one of the architects of the ball-tampering plan, which is completely baseless. Cummins said the claim that he and others were the masterminds of a plan to tamper with the ball using sandpaper is entirely baseless and complete rubbish.

The sandpaper ball-tampering incident came to light during the Cape Town Test against South Africa in 2018. Khawaja, however, claims the same tactic was also used in the second Test of the series in Port Elizabeth.

Cricket Australia's investigation, though, said only David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft knew about the plan. After the incident, all three were sent home and banned.

Warner, a close friend of Khawaja, has taken a position in support of his remarks. But Darren Lehmann, the head coach at the time, and batting coach Graeme Hick have denied the allegation. Hick has called Khawaja's claim completely false. Mitchell Starc has also said they had no idea sandpaper was being taken onto the field.

Cummins also expressed dissatisfaction with the way Khawaja raised the allegation. In his view, Khawaja did not act responsibly in making such a serious allegation after so many years. Cummins said Usman is his friend, but one friend cannot speak lightly about another friend's life and reputation. In his book, he said, Khawaja has taken his and many others' lives and reputations lightly, and he feels Khawaja has done the same with Australian cricket.