Scott Boland brushed off Usman Khawaja’s claim that his home state Victoria once perfected the “dark arts” of ball-tampering, while Nic Maddinson has described the former Australian opener’s comments as “disappointing”.
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Khawaja’s memoir, ‘Sabr’, drops on Tuesday and will include allegations that Australian domestic cricket was riddled with cheating before Sandpapergate.
In a snippet of the autobiography reported by CODE Sports, Khawaja called the Vics of the 2000s and 2010s “genius” at getting the best out of an old ball.
Boland – who debuted for Victoria in 2011 – accepts cheating can occur at lower levels but insists nothing “untoward” happened during his time with the Vics.
“Yeah, I don’t know what the dark arts are,” Boland said with a laugh.
“I think in general the last 10 years, probably since Cape Town, reverse swing has really gone out of the game.
“I don’t know, if you went back to club cricket without cameras, you’d probably see a lot of things that would happen.
“From my point of view, I haven’t really seen anything untoward.”
Retired Australian fast bowler Chadd Sayers supported Khawaja’s recollection of the now infamous 2018 Cape Town Test.
However, there has been no fresh response from Aussie bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon since their joint statement in 2021.
Cricket Australia is understood to be waiting until the official release of Sabr before making any formal reply.
Khawaja’s explosive Sandpapergate claim | 03:18
Maddinson, who featured in Australia’s recent tour of South Africa, was asked about Khawaja’s comments on Monday ahead of NSW’s Sheffield Shield game against South Africa.
He echoed the opinion of former Australian Test captain Mark Taylor, who said the most “disappointing” part of it all was the fact it would lead to countless questions for the current crop of players.
“It’s obviously disappointing that it keeps coming up,” Maddinson said, per The Sydney Morning Herald.
“But it’s that time of year, isn’t it, when Christmas comes along and people have books to sell, so things come out.
“I think the three guys who’ve been affected the most (Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft), it doesn’t really help them at all to relive it, especially over the past month, having great series in South Africa.
“Obviously, the crowds weren’t as hostile (recently in South Africa), maybe as what people expected, but that stuff’s still there every day – at airports, and the general public making comments here and there.
“I guess over time it would still wear them down and (for that) to just pop up at the start of the summer going into a pretty big six months for the team is obviously disappointing for those guys.”
Lehmann denies part in sandpaper plot | 02:02
Travis Head, meanwhile, had a simple message when asked about the scandal on Monday.
“Move on,” he said.
“I think the public are ready to move on… I think the Test team has moved a long way, the people that were in charge of Cricket Australia in 2018, a lot has changed there. Some personnel and leadership have moved on and the team has come a long way.
“I think eight years down the track, and I’m someone who wasn’t involved in it and as a player really hasn’t been impacted by it, to still go everywhere and still have it mentioned, I think it’s had its time and everyone is ready to move on.”
Boland is confident Australia can block out the headlines and bounce back from its series loss to South Africa against New Zealand this summer.
“I can’t see it being too much of a distraction, it was eight years ago, the guys have played a lot of Test cricket since then,” Boland said.
“I don’t see it being too big of a distraction.”
The first Test between Australia and New Zealand starts in Perth on December 9.