Khawaja claimed in his book that the entire Australian team was aware of ball-tampering plot in 2018.
Australian Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins on Friday (November 13) strongly rejected former teammate Usman Khawaja's allegations regarding the 2018 Newlands ball-tampering scandal.
During a press conference in Sydney. Cummins dismissed the claims made in Khawaja's recently published autobiography, Sabr, calling them "100% wrong" and "complete and utter nonsense".
Cummins expressed shock over Khawaja's book admission that he sat next to Cameron Bancroft in the dressing room, heard of the tampering plot, and told Bancroft to "be careful".
“When he says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, is 100% wrong. I've said that consistently for the last eight years, I did not know that was happening,” Cummins told reporters.
“But I think Usman actually says things that are actually far more serious than that. He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to tamper the ball with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense. I was genuinely shocked this week when I found out that Usman admitted that he told Cam Bancroft to be careful when using sandpaper,” he added.
Addressing their friendship, Cummins criticized Khawaja for being "casual with each other's lives and reputations" through vague allegations in the book
“That's not the Uzzie that I know. It's not the Usman that I think, or that has been part of a team that's helped rebuild this Australian cricket culture over the last eight years, and you know the Usman that would have stopped that from happening there and then. Usman's a friend, but friends aren't casual with each other's lives and reputations,” Cummins said.
“In his book, Uzzie has been casual with my life and the lives of many others, and I think Australian cricket. I support his right to tell a story 100%. I'm really glad that he feels like he can, but we have to be accountable for the things that we say and do,” he continued.
Cummins maintained his eight-year stance that he and the bowling attack had no knowledge that sandpaper was being taken onto the field. He stated there was "no masterplan" or team meeting to use illegal methods.
“There was no master plan around using illegal methods. I think that's maybe something that hasn't been spoken about enough. People assume you've gone from very legal methods to suddenly taking sandpaper, and there must have been some huge master plan,” Cummins said.
“The truth, that is not the case. That's one of the reasons why I really want to talk through because context and details matter around this. There's no grand plan. There's no team meeting. There's no bowlers saying this is what must happen. I think there's natural progressions that get you there,” he added.
To emphasize that he had never witnessed illegal tampering in the national setup, Cummins shared an anecdote from early in his career. He noted that the domestic Sheffield Shield incident involving a senior New South Wales batter was the sole occasion he had seen a player illegally alter a ball on the field.
“He was a batter. He was a senior player, I won't mention him, but he took a bottle cap out in the field, and that was the one time I've seen on the field. I was looking at it going, 'Wow, that's not okay.' It was dealt with. The umpires knew it as well. They called him out and said, 'You've got to stop that right now.' He was dealt with. That's the only time I've seen something illegal out there,” Cummins remarked.
Released earlier in the week, Khawaja’s book reignited the 2018 "Sandpapergate" controversy, in which he rejected the long-held assertion that only Steven Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft were involved in the scandal.
Khawaja claimed that the entire touring party was aware of the ball-tampering plot and that the Australian team had successfully used sandpaper on the ball a game prior to the infamous Cape Town Test.
Warner backed Khawaja’s version of events in a social media post and called the original 2018 Cricket Australia integrity investigation a "rushed and botched" process.
Notably, Smith and Warner had received 12-month bans from Cricket Australia, while Bancroft was suspended for nine months after being caught using sandpaper on the ball during the Newlands Test against South Africa.
While maintaining his own innocence, Cummins stated that the punishment handed to Smith, Warner, and Bancroft were "way too heavy-handed".
Cummins noted that while he had spoken to Smith since the book's publication, he had not yet been in contact with Warner or Bancroft. He affirmed that he and Smith are "on the same page".
Cummins also pushed back against media criticism regarding Smith's injury withdrawal from a recent Test match against South Africa.
“I've spoken to Steve a few times since. He's good. He's saying his neck is feeling better. I think he gets into Australia very soon, and I think he is due to play the Shield game soon. We're in a really good place. I think there was some commentary, unfair commentary around Steve in that last week. Perhaps I could have done a better job of trying to soften that a bit,” said Cummins.
“I think I probably got a little bit misconstrued how there definitely was a level of disappointment in a such a big game that we were missing one of our great players. But no, very aligned going ahead. Very excited. He's very excited for the next 12 months. We'll need him. I'll need him as captain, alongside him as vice-captain. So all very aligned,” he added.