Former Australian spinner Stuart MacGill has revealed that he used sandpaper during his playing days, amidst the ongoing controversy as Usman Khawaja reignited the ball-tampering conversation before the release of his autobiography, 'SABR.'

Khawaja, who played 88 Tests for Australia, has revealed that David Warner, Steve Smith, and Cameron Bancroft were made scapegoats for the Sandpapergate controversy, which took place during Australia's Test against South Africa in Cape Town in 2018.

He stated that the entire dressing room knew about the use of sandpaper, and the practice had begun during the second Test in Port Elizabeth. Notably, Bancroft, Warner, and Smith were banned by Cricket Australia for their role in Sandpapergate.

Stuart MacGill has confessed to the use of sandpaper in handling the ball during his career. MacGill, who represented Australia in 44 Test matches and three One Day Internationals from 1998 through 2008, claimed to have handled the ball using sandpaper, but he was quick to deny any ulterior motives behind it.

MacGill explained how he would attach a small piece of sandpaper to his thumb and use it to scratch the ball. He stated that he would use sandpaper after tea during matches before removing the piece and throwing it away.

"I'd cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to my thumb," he said. "It was not a part of a massive 'global cheating scam'; I was just really curious to see what would happen and if it would work. And oh, it works (laughs).

What they would do is the umpires, as you're walking out on the ground, used to put the ball sort of about 20 meters over the boundary and leave it there, and you'd run out on the field, pick it up, and go on the field.

I would tape a little bit of a square of sandpaper on my thumb, pick the ball up just after tea, scratch the living daylights out of it, pull the sandpaper off, and chuck it in the gutter before a ball had even been bowled. So, nobody even knew that I'd done it, apart from all the scratches on the ball,” MacGill said on the FanaticsTV YouTube show, featuring former Australian players Steve O'Keefe and Moises Henriques.  

However, the new information provided by Khawaja has opened a lot of new questions about what other members of the national squad knew about the incident.

Darren Lehmann, Australia’s head coach during their 2018 tour of South Africa, vehemently denies having known anything about the plan to use sandpaper to change the state of the ball. Also, other players like Mitchell Starc deny having taken part in the scandal.

David Warner, one of the three players sanctioned because of the scandal, stands in support of Khawaja and states that the allegations made in his autobiography are true.