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Australia skipper Pat Cummins slammed former teammate Usman Khawaja for his "utter nonsense" revelations on the 2018 ball-tampering scandal during the tour to South Africa and accused him of being "casual with lives and reputations" of players in his autobiography.
Usman's autobiography titled 'Sabr' has brought back the old wounds of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal during the South Africa tour, as a part of which then-captain and vice-captain Steve Smith and David Warner received one-year competitive cricket bans, while Cameron Bancroft was also handed sanctions. Besides shedding light on how the whole team was aware of the use of sandpaper and responsibility lay with everyone instead of the three aforementioned players, he also made some shocking, never-heard-before revelations of Aussies using sandpaper during the 2018 SA series' second Test at Gqeberha as well, before they were eventually caught in Cape Town during the third Test. He also spoke about how Aussies altered the condition of the ball during the 2017/18 Ashes series at home by lifting the quarter-seam of the cricket ball. Speaking during the presser at Sydney's Cricket Central, Cummins said, as quoted by Fox Sports, that Khawaja's claims that everyone, including the bowling quartet of Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, were aware of sandpaper being brought to the field were 100 per cent wrong. "When he says we all knew, if that he means we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he is 100% wrong," Cummins said. "I said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening. But I think Usman actually says things that are far more serious than that." "He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense," he continued. While he still termed Usman a friend, he also went on to make serious accusations of a casual approach towards telling his story involving his own long-time teammates and friends and called for some accountability from him. "Usman is a friend, but friends are not casual with each other's lives and reputations," he said. "In his book he has been casual with my life and the lives of many others and I think Australian cricket." "I support him to tell his story, 100%, I am glad he feels like he can but we have to be accountable for the things that we say and do," he continued. The skipper said that the years-old controversy and the way Khawaja has casually told his story affect Australian cricket and people who are a part of it. "It affects real people. It affects people's lives. It's also strange. I love Australian cricket. It has given me so much," said Cummins. "This really affects Australian cricket. And I think the way that he has presented his story, I think he's done that in a very casual manner. And it affects a lot of people.That is what I am grappling with at the moment because I do not think it is okay," he continued. Cummins also denied that the whole bowling group at that time was aware of the plan to alter the condition of the ball and also added that he would not speak for anyone else in the team of their knowledge or lack of it, aside from Smith, Warner and Bancroft, who faced immense public scrutiny and hate after the Sandpaper gate scandal got public and sanctions were handed out to them. "If we are talking about taking sandpaper out the front, all I can say is I did not know that was happening," he said. "I am not sure if there was more than those three (who knew about it), but I did not know," he stated. He denied the suggestion that bowlers would know a ball had been altered by just looking at it, citing the fact that umpires investigated the ball after Bancroft's use of the sandpaper was revealed and play continued at the third Cape Town Test without a five-run penalty to the team. "At that stage, even the umpires had a look. We did not know it had been altered with sandpaper," he said. He also said that reverse swing is normal and balls getting rougher with more play is common. Whether to see if it's getting rough was due to a foreign object or just through legal/part of the game means is also hard to know. "Reverse swing is very normal, balls get roughened up every time we play. Whether that's from a foreign object or something that is totally legal and part of the game, sometimes it is hard to know. But out there in the field I did not see anything on the ball," he said. The skipper also said that it was common to have sandpaper in the dressing room and denied any "master plan" to get it onto the field. "People assume you have gone from very legal methods to suddenly taking sandpaper and there must have been some huge master plan. That is not the case," he said. "Context and details matter around this," he added. Cummins also hit out at Khawaja over vagaries in his story, saying if there were conversations with Bancroft and others, he was not aware of them at the time. "I think there are a few big leaps here where he's being vague," he said on Khawaja's recollections. "I think the details really matter ... perhaps there was conversations with Cam Bancroft around taking sandpaper out and how to do it, but that does not mean that everyone in that dressing room knew what was going on," he added. Cummins also said that Usman had been "quite casual and flippant" with the lives of people and Australian cricket. "Uzzy is a friend. But I think the way he is been quite casual and flippant with people's lives and Australian cricket, I do not think that is okay," Cummins said. "I played 15 years, my debut for New South Wales and with Australia, Usman was right there and he has been awesome to me and he us a friend, but this is people's real lives and this is serious ... this affects not only people, but people's families." "I am one of the lesser ones ... but talking eight years ago, it was traumatic for those guys. For all of us, for Australian cricket," Cummins said. "So to bring it up so flippantly and casually, um, I think it is irresponsible," he signed off. (ANI)
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