'Absolutely False': Ex-Aussie Batting Coach Denies Khawaja's Sandpaper Claims
Sydney: Usman Khawaja’s Farewell Moments at SCG - Image Source: IANS
Cape Town Test: Former Australia batting coach Graeme Hick has slammed Usman Khawaja's bombshell revelation that everyone on the team knew about the use of an illegal foreign object on the ball in the infamous 2028 sandpaper gate, saying, "What Khawaja is implying is absolutely false."
Three days before the release of his memoir 'Sabr', which detailed the events of 2018 Sandpapergate, Khawaja dropped a bombshell saying the whole team was aware of the sandpaper plot in the Cape Town Test. Moreover, he revealed that the object was used during the previous Test match.
"I have seen the various statements around the coaches and I’m very disappointed with the broad nature of them,” Hick, who was Australia’s batting coach from 2016-2020, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Khawaja puts it simply: ‘It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us'."
Until now, the public narrative was that the then captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft were involved, with Bancroft having applied the object to the ball. Smith and Warner were handed a one-year ban from playing in international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft was banned for nine months.
Moreover, Smith was told that he could not captain Australia for two years. Warner was hit with a lifetime leadership ban in international and Australian domestic cricket, something which was overturned in 2024.
"To me what Khawaja is implying here is absolutely false. In regard to any discussions around the ball tampering in Port Elizabeth or Cape Town that took place, I will say in true honesty that I did not hear or know anything!!
"My first knowledge of all this was, like many, when it appeared on the big screen in Cape Town as I was sat on the outside balcony at the time," he added.
The masthead further reported that Test skipper Pat Cummins is expected to speak publicly for the first time since Khawaja’s explosive claims on Friday, but Cricket Australia said it is yet to be confirmed.
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Article Source: IANS