Khawaja rejects claims he threw teammates 'under the bus' over Sandpapergate revelations

Former Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has pushed back against suggestions he has blamed teammates in his account of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, insisting he has not "thrown anyone under the bus".

The 39-year-old, who retired from international cricket in January, posted a video on Instagram on Sunday, a day after releasing an excerpt from his autobiography in which he claimed the entire Australian team had been aware of the ball-tampering during the tour of South Africa.

The affair, widely known as Sandpapergate, erupted during the March 2018 Test in Cape Town when Australia scuffed the ball with sandpaper, triggering a major integrity crisis for Cricket Australia. Captain Steve Smith and batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who was caught with sandpaper in his pocket, were banned for their roles.

Khawaja said he had wanted to "come clean" about the episode since 2018, and rejected the idea that his claims targeted anyone still playing.

"I haven't thrown anyone under the bus," he said. "The guys currently in the team and the other people who were there on the South African tour, including me, we're not the victims."

"These three guys [Bancroft, Warner and Smith] took the blame for all of us, and they're the victims," he added. Khawaja said he had spoken to the three players and promised Warner he would tell his side of the story. "These three guys deserve justice, and I haven't pointed fingers at anyone."

Khawaja, who retired after 88 Tests, also defended the timing of his revelations, denying they were a marketing ploy to sell his book. He said he first wanted to go public in 2018, after Smith, Warner and Bancroft were suspended, but was talked out of it by Smith. "But Smudge [Smith] being the man and leader he was, he talked me out of it. He wanted to take the blame. I argued with him, but he was having none of it. That's the first time I tried to come out."

He said he came close to speaking out again in 2021, when bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon publicly denied knowing about the ball-tampering, but held off after lengthy talks with then-coach Justin Langer. After that, he said, he never felt comfortable raising it while back in the Australian side from 2022.

"Call me a chicken or whatever you want. I didn't know how to do it because I was still in the team," Khawaja said. "I was always conscious of putting my team first, but I'm not in that team any more."

Australia's Test team returned to South Africa for the first time since 2018 last month, losing the three-match series 2-1, with the tour partly overshadowed by renewed discussion of the scandal and the upcoming release of Khawaja's book. He said his aim remains the same as it was years ago: "For us, me included, to take the blame together as a team so we can all move on from this once and for all."