The entire Australian team was dishonest! This big claim has been made by none other than former Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja. Hardly any cricket fan can forget the four-match Test series played between Australia and South Africa in 2018. During this series, a scandal took place which embarrassed cricket all over the world. This controversy was named Sandpapergate. It was then revealed that David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were involved in ball tampering.

After this, strict action was taken against the three players and it was believed that the truth of this entire matter had come to light. But now after almost eight years, Usman Khwaja has made such a revelation, which has once again fueled this old controversy.

In fact, Usman Khawaja has claimed in his autobiography 'Sabr' that not just three players but the entire Australian team were involved in the sandpaper scandal. Parts of his book have been published in the Sydney Morning Herald. In this, Khawaja has said that the entire team was aware of ball tampering.

His claim has also raised questions on the old statements of Australia's four great bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

Actually, in the year 2021, these four bowlers had issued a joint statement. In this he had clearly said that he had no knowledge of the ball being tampered with by using any foreign object on the field. He claimed that he came to know about this whole matter when the pictures of ball tampering were shown on the big screen of the Newlands ground. But now the claims made in Khwaja's book have heated up this entire issue again.

Khawaja has mentioned not only the Cape Town Test but also the other Tests played before that. According to him, the discussion regarding ball tampering in the Australian team had started from the second Test itself. Khawaja told that when this matter was being discussed, Steve Smith raised his hands in the air and said that he did not want to know anything about it. After this, the Australian team was exposed in front of the whole world in the third test. TV cameras caught Cameron Bancroft rubbing sandpaper on the ball. Within no time this matter became one of the biggest controversies in the history of cricket.

Khawaja has also raised questions about Cricket Australia's investigation in his autobiography. He told that no evidence was even asked from him during the investigation. Not only this, he has also mentioned the conversation that took place in the dressing room after the Cape Town Test. According to Khawaja, he had asked all the players to take responsibility for this incident as a team. But this did not happen and ultimately Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were held responsible for this entire scandal.

Expressing his views, Khawaja said, “This happened because of all of us.

Neither the batsman, nor the bowler, nor the staff. We all were the reason for this.”

At present, these claims of Usman Khawaja have once again brought the sandpaper scandal of 2018 into the biggest discussions of the cricket world. If his claims are proven true, then the question becomes more serious whether the truth of this entire matter was not revealed to the world at that time? Does the heat of the controversy, whose responsibility till now was considered limited to three players, reach the entire Australian team?