Usman Khawaja’s bombshell Sandpapergate revelations have the potential to destabilise an already vulnerable Australia ahead of next year’s Ashes series, according to former England great Michael Vaughan.
The cricket world was rocked when Khawaja made public for the first time a long-suspected secret out of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal: that the entire team knew about the plan to put sandpaper on the ball during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
The fallout has seen former Australian coach Darren Lehmann dispute the 39-year-old’s recollection of events, while the Sydney Morning Herald have reported that Peter Collins, the man who led a player review following the scandal, has urged Cricket Australia to reopen their investigation eight years on.
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The revelations have provoked widespread debate in every cricket-playing nation: and unsurprisingly, the English media has been particularly outspoken.
Writing for The Telegraph, Vaughan, who captained England to their drought-breaking Ashes win in 2005, was adamant his former team could be major benefactors from Khawaja’s reveal.
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“The one team that will be delighted by the ball-tampering scandal blowing up again is England, because it could completely dismantle an Australia side already under a huge amount of pressure,” Vaughan wrote.
“… England will be loving this, and rightly so, but they still need to keep their own house in order and not just bet on the fact Australia will be broken by the time they arrive for our home summer.
“Australia are a resilient bunch, but this is going to be a difficult few weeks and a lot can happen between now and next summer.
“This has happened at the worst possible time for Cummins and his team.”
However, Vaughan was more critical of Cricket Australia’s role in covering up the true extent of Sandpapergate, which Khawaja revealed extended to the second Test against the Proteas in Gqeberha.
A CA investigation at the time limited its scope solely to the match in Cape Town, while speculation was rife at the time that Australia had used similar tactics during their 4-0 home Ashes win just months prior.
For Vaughan, that it has taken eight years for the truth to come out is staggering – writing on X that “we finally now know the most hidden secret in the game … no s**t Sherlock”.
“What I can’t understand is how Australia thought they would put this to bed. It has been an open secret in cricket circles,” he wrote in The Telegraph.
“How the hell don’t you know something like that in a team environment?
“… You can’t tell me the Australian team did not communicate that or the bowlers were totally unaware of what was being done to the ball they were using.
“… Cricket Australia is as culpable as any of the players involved. It decided to narrow the scope of the investigation, creating the possibility for it to be exposed later down the line.”
Vaughan dismissed suggestions bans could be in order for the players remaining from the Cape Town Test, in particular bowling quartet Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.
The group put out a collective statement denying any knowledge of the ball-tampering plot in 2021, after Cameron Bancroft claimed it was “self-explanatory” the bowlers were aware of the team’s plans.
But Vaughan added that the group will face a “lively” first press conference when they return to the Australian set-up for the summer’s Tests against New Zealand, having been rested for limited-overs series against England.
“They cannot run away for ever,” he wrote.
The Times’Simon Wilde, meanwhile, opined that the insistence over eight years that no one but David Warner, Bancroft and former captain Steve Smith knew of the ball-tampering plot was “absurd, a blithe insult to everyone’s intelligence”.
He shared Vaughan’s belief that Khawaja’s bombshell has the capacity to do “lasting damage”, with the reputations of key figures including captain Cummins and veteran bowling greats Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon taking a heavy hit.
“As so often in these situations, the cover-up, if true, has the potential to be proved worse than the original crime,” Wilde wrote.
“The omerta among the players and coaches and CA’s desire to protect the team not only from a potential drop-off in results should there have been wholesale playing bans, but also the potential hit to revenues from what would be judged a toxic brand.
“Of course, there will be no new CA inquiry. But Khawaja’s decision to give his account of events ensures that one of cricket’s biggest scandals is certain to do lasting damage to the reputations of a generation of Australian players.”
Closer to home, The Agewriter Andrew Wu found another clear winner out of the revelation alongside England – Warner.
Long the scapegoat for Sandpapergate, Khawaja’s reveal that the former opener had been “pissed off” by the bowlers’ refusal to accept any part of the blame for the scandal – as well as scuppering a plan suggested by Khawaja to “take it as a team” with their 2021 statement – goes some way towards mitigating his culpability.
“The big winner is Warner, who has admirably resisted temptation to speak openly about what happened but now has had someone else pull the trigger for him,” Wu wrote.
Bancroft, however, has emerged as an even greater victim – both for the nine-month suspension he received as a result of his taking of sandpaper onto the Newlands field to trigger the scandal, as well as for his absence from the Test team for all but two matches since.
Speaking on ABC Radio, former bowling great Jason Gillespie questioned his absence from the team despite a mountain of Sheffield Shield runs, with Australia having searched desperately for opening batter options since Warner’s retirement in early 2024.
“If you go on his output at Sheffield Shield level, he should have been considered for selection,” Gillespie said of Bancroft.
“What didn’t get him over the line? It wasn’t because he was not scoring runs, because he was scoring more runs than anyone else.
“It all points, I reckon, to just personality: certain people, whoever’s selecting the teams, favour certain players over the others. That’s how it sounds.”
Bancroft is yet to make a public response to Khawaja’s reveal, but Western Australia coach Beau Casson said the opener would “let his bat do the talking” from here.
“He’s a grown man and a very mature guy – I think he’s handled himself with distinction in that space,” Casson said.
“The situation was a long time ago. He’s keen to move on and let his bat do the talking, and that’s what we promote him to do.”
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