Former Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja has cancelled events to promote his new book, local media reported on Wednesday, after an awkward television interview in which he refused to confirm whether Australia’s bowlers were involved in the 2018 ball-tampering plot in South Africa.
Batsmen Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were sanctioned over the ‘Sandpapergate’ scandal, but Khawaja claimed in his autobiography ‘Sabr’ that knowledge of the plan to manipulate the ball was not confined to those three players and that the whole team should be held responsible.
Cricket Australia (CA) CEO Todd Greenberg has ruled out another investigation into the scandal, but pressure was growing on Wednesday for the governing body to reopen the case.
Appearing on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘7:30’ programme on Tuesday, Khawaja was asked whether captain Pat Cummins and his fellow bowlers had prior knowledge that sandpaper was being used to change the condition of the ball.
“You’ve got to remember Pat Cummins is a good friend of mine, Mitchell Starc, a lot of these guys, guys on the team, other players on the team,” he replied.
“Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, all very good friends of mine.
“I’m not here to go on a witch hunt, all I’ve ever wanted is for us to take accountability as a team and I don’t think that’s a lot to say.”
Fast bowler Starc denied prior knowledge of the ball-tampering on Tuesday.
Warner, who was banned from the team for a year and cast by Cricket Australia’s investigation as the chief architect of the plot, threw his weight behind Khawaja on Monday and said his account was 100 per cent accurate.
Cummins said in South Africa last month that he had spoken to Khawaja about his book and was not concerned about any potential fallout.
“He just basically gave me the heads-up that he’s doing a book, and yeah, as always, no worries. Tell your story. It’s fine,” Cummins said.
Khawaja said in the interview he hoped other teammates would come forward and talk about the 2018 saga honestly but he was not forcing anyone to do anything, nor calling on CA to re-investigate.
“I’m not calling for anything, I’m literally sharing my version of the truth,” he added.
Australian media reported Khawaja pulled out of TV and radio interviews to promote his book following the TV interview.
Khawaja and his book’s publisher Penguin did not provide an immediate response to requests for comment.
While Greenberg said on Tuesday there was “no compelling reason” for another investigation, there have been growing calls for CA to take another look at the scandal.
Editorials in two major newspapers have called on CA to take action while The Australian newspaper urged Cummins to break his silence as the team’s captain.
Simon Longstaff, who led a cultural investigation into Australian cricket in the wake of ‘Sandpapergate’, said Khawaja and Warner’s allegations had shone a spotlight into the darker corners of the men’s game.
“My fear is that if the belatedly revealed claims are proven true, the damage to the game will be at least as great as that caused by the original sin of ball tampering,” he wrote in a column in the Australian Financial Review.
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