Usman Khawaja wants to tell "his story" about the sandpaper scandal. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor)
Usman Khawaja's revelations about the sandpaper scandal have reopened a massive rift in Australian cricket: who knew what? Who's lying? Who's telling the truth.
Much of the problem lies in the ambiguity of language that Khawaja has used in his interviews and moreover in his newly release autobiography, Sabr, which he is now publicising.
When Khawaja told the Nine newspapers that "It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us," what exactly did he mean?
Was he inferring that the entire team knew about the plot to sandpaper a cricket ball during the third Test in Cape Town in 2018?
Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months and Steve Smith for a year for their roles in the sandpaper scandal. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images) (Getty Images: Ashley Vlotman)
Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months and Steve Smith for a year for their roles in the sandpaper scandal. (Photo by Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images) (Getty Images: Ashley Vlotman)
That clearly is how most of Australia understood that statement.
Or was he saying that everyone in the Australian set-up needed to take responsibility?
We don't know and that is because of Khawaja's deliberate attempts to not name names as he told Sarah Ferguson on 730 this week, "it's never been for me about pointing fingers."
"This is my story," he wrote in his book.
But what is clearly inferred from the book is that even if he wasn't pointing fingers at individuals, the knowledge of the ball tampering was widespread and discussed within the team and on the field.
So, what exactly is in Khawaja's book?
The sandpaper chapter is dedicated to three players who were banned for their involvement in the incident, then captain, Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and "my childhood friend David Warner".
"The truth will set you free," he wrote.
The set-up happened before the first test in Durban when he alleges a member of the coaching staff told the team: "I don't care what you have to do, or how, but we need to get it moving in the air."
The Australians celebrate the final wicket of the first Test in Durban in 2018. (Getty Images: Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
The Australians celebrate the final wicket of the first Test in Durban in 2018. (Getty Images: Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
"It was so much harder to bat when the ball was moving in the air, particularly when it was reverse swinging.
"We had to keep doing what all of us had been doing for years in domestic and international cricket: finding a way to make it go reverse.
"Reverse swing on those older, flatter Test wickets was how you won matches, come day four and five."
The first reference to sandpaper in the chapter comes in reference to the size of the change rooms during the South Africa series.
"Of course I bloody knew what was happening with the sandpaper.
"There wasn't much in those small change-rooms that got past me. It was a room full of banter and it was very hard to hide anything. Let alone when you used sandpaper on the ball and it would leave these huge swirl marks on it."
Sandpaper, he explains, is readily available in cricket change rooms, because batters use it to clean up their bats.
On day two of the second test at Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), he described an experiment to use sandpaper on a cricket ball.
Steve Smith and David Warner appeal for a wicket during the second Test of the series. (Getty Images: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
Steve Smith and David Warner appeal for a wicket during the second Test of the series. (Getty Images: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
"What we saw was unbelievable. The ball was completely dry and extremely scuffed on the side we'd sandpapered. There was no way it wouldn't reverse if we bowled with it. Everyone had a look at the ball and was laughing their heads off."
He wrote that a plan was hatched to sandpaper the ball in the Test immediately after breaks in play when the umpire would drop the ball on the boundary before the players went onto the field.
Cameron Bancroft offered to do the deed, because David Warner was conscious that the TV cameras were focused on him.
Khawaja recounted Bancroft saying: "No worries — it'll be easy."
"At this stage, Steve Smith put his hands up and said, 'I don't want to know about anything about this,' and walked out of the room."
Smith used almost the exact same words to describe his actions in a press conference during his subsequent one-year ban.
Nevertheless, the plan went ahead as Khawaja described in his book.
Australia cut through the South African batters after Cameron Bancroft had taken to the ball with sandpaper. (Getty Images: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
Australia cut through the South African batters after Cameron Bancroft had taken to the ball with sandpaper. (Getty Images: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images)
"The next session, we absolutely went through the South Africans. Bangers (Bancroft) had walked on the field after the break, picked up the ball that the umpires had left on the field, and given it a few twists and turns. The ball came up a treat. The shiny side was shiny and the buffed and, thanks to the sandpaper, the reverse side was really rough and dry.
"Every time during that session the ball was passed to me at gully, I'd take a look and think, wow, even I could reverse swing this ball. It was ridiculous. The bowlers went to work and bowled beautifully. Reversing it around corners. We got four wickets for 28 runs.
"It was moving so much that, at one point, one of the bowlers said in the huddle after a wicket, 'Guys, it's going heaps now. Just don't do anything else to it, because it's silly how much it's going'.
Khawaja doesn't name the bowlers who took the four wicket in the book, but the scoreboard shows Mitchell Marsh took two, while Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc took one each.
Even so, Australia lost the test. Khawaja claimed that the South African bowlers were reverse swinging the ball "everywhere", starting after about 21 overs.
"We didn't know what they were doing with the ball — all we knew was that they were better than us at getting it go reverse. And we were using sandpaper!"
Come the third test at Cape Town, drizzle was making the ball wet and hard to swing.
Khawaja described a member of the coaching staff approaching Bancroft who he was sitting next to.
"Bangers, whatever you're doing, we need more of it. It's wet out there — we just need more of it," Khawaja says the coach said.
Khawaja wrote the sandpaper helped take the wet surface layer off the ball, making it dry and more conducive to reverse swing.
It was the next session when the infamous shots of Bancroft trousering a small yellow sliver of sandpaper were broadcast on the big screen at Newlands.
Cameron Bancroft was called over by the umpires after being caught with the sandpaper. (Gallo Images via Getty: Ashley Vlotman)
Cameron Bancroft was called over by the umpires after being caught with the sandpaper. (Gallo Images via Getty: Ashley Vlotman)
"Every one of the boys on the field was shitting themselves."
Khawaja wrote it was after the game he had a conversation with the team manager, Gavin Dovey.
"We need to cop this as a team. We did it as a team, so we cop it as a team.
"[Dovey] said I was right but that two guys in the team disagreed."
During a subsequent team meeting, Khawaja wrote he expressed the same view that the entire team should accept responsibility.
"There was silence when I said that. Most of the guys agreed, but Painey (Steve Smith's replacement as captain, Tim Paine) knew not everyone felt that way. And so, my idea fell flat."
Khawaja concludes the chapter saying: "I can only speak for myself, and it's very clear I knew what was going on."
Khawaja wants the rest of us to draw our own conclusions.