Khawaja made some sensational claims before the release of his autobiography "SABR".
In 2021, the Australian pace attack of Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood, who were involved in the 2018 South Africa Test tour and played in the Cape Town Test where the sandpapergate happened, issued a joint statement denying knowledge of any foreign object being used to alter the condition of the ball.
The infamous 'sandpapergate' controversy happened in the third Test match against South Africa in Cape Town, 2018. Captain Steve Smith and deputy captain David Warner both got banned for one year from playing international cricket, while Cameron Bancroft was suspended for nine months for tampering with the ball using sandpaper.
Before the release of his autobiography 'Sabr,' Khawaja revealed that the whole Australian team knew about the plan to tamper with the ball while touring South Africa.
The former opener contended that blame for the incident ought to have been distributed across the group, disputing Cricket Australia's longstanding stance that Smith, Warner, and Bancroft were the only ones directly involved.
According to his book, Khawaja allegedly stated that sandpaper was also employed during the second Test in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), prior to Australia being caught out at the Cape Town Test.
Speaking to reporters at an event on Tuesday, Starc said he had largely stayed away from the debate.
"I have not really paid much attention, to be fair. Obviously, there are differing opinions about what happened eight years ago. We were heavily drilled through the process at the time and since. I would not speak on behalf of the bowlers, but where I stand, my opinion has not changed. My recollection has not changed from what we said in 2021,” Starc said, as quoted by Fox Sports/ABC Sports.
When asked about Khawaja's assertion concerning purported ball-tampering during the Test in Gqeberha, Starc stated that he did not know about any such incident. Starc reiterated that his stance remains consistent with the statement issued by Australia's bowlers in 2021.
"Yeah, that is the first time I was aware of any of that taking place in PE (Port Elizabeth). I'll leave that for said authors to explain. As our statement said, we were not aware of things being taken onto the field. That's where I'll leave it," he added.
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(ANI inputs)