"Some things are best left unsaid": Darren Lehmann after Khawaja's explosive 2018 ball-tampering scandal claims

Khawaja has claimed that the entire Australian team, including players and support staff, was involved in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal during the South Africa tour. He said the responsibility was collective, contrary to Cricket Australia's findings that implicated only Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Khawaja stressed that he had expected the truth to emerge over the past eight years and spoke out to ensure the three players were not left carrying the blame alone.

Until now, the widely accepted account of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, maintained by Cricket Australia (CA) and those involved, was that Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were the only players responsible. Smith and Warner received 12-month bans from international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension.

Lehmann, who resigned from his position as head coach after the Sandpaper-Gate scandal, spoke on ABC Grandstand on Saturday after Khawaja's explosive claims about the whole team knowing the fact that a sandpaper had been used during the Cape Town Test in March 2018.

"It has been an eventful morning, has not it? It just brings back really bad memories. It was a bad day in Australian cricket, Lehmann said.

Everyone around the world was doing it, as people have spoken about.The extent of how much everyone knew, that is an individual case by case. For the families and the people involved, I feel for them right now because it is taking them back to a really bad place. It is a tough one, mate. It is not ideal at the start of the summer."

It is eight years ago, so some of the things you remember, some you do not," he added.

Lehmann suggested that "some things were best left unsaid" as Khawaja made these revelations ahead of release of his autobiography titled 'Sabr' on Tuesday. He questioned if Khawaja could have said those things way back then.

"Could he [Khawaja] have said this at the time [eight years]? I suppose that is one of the things in the book. Books are there to sell. He is retired. I have not spoken to Usman, to be fair. He has not texted me or rung me. That is just the way it is," he said.

"I had to have a lot of help ... behind the scenes [after that incident]. It is not easy to talk about but it puts you back in a bad place. Hopefully, I can get through this."

"That is part and parcel of selling books, I suppose. I do not know what he is getting paid. He is probably getting paid a lot of money to do it. Is it worth it? I do not know. Maybe I write a book. Sometimes things are [best] left unsaid sometimes for the good of the game, and the good of the people," he continued.

Asked on if the left-handed batter called for the team to take a collective responsibility after the scandal, Lehmann said that he dos not remember Khawaja doing so.

"No, I do not remember that, Lehmann said. There were two change rooms [at the Cape Town venue] and meetings going on everywhere. I was in meetings with Cricket Australia a lot. I cannot remember that, but it could have been the case. That is what it is from his point of view," he said.

I do not think everyone would have known. But you do know ball tampering is going on because it has been happening for 150 years," he added.

Lehmann also said that it is now upto the pace trio of Mitchell Starc, skipper Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood and spinner Nathan Lyon to speak to Khawaja. The revelations have renewed some scrutiny around these bowlers, who issued a joint statement back in 2021 denying that they were aware of a foreign substance being present on the field to alter the ball's conditions.

"How much did they know? Only they know individually. They have been greats of the game. We are talking eight years ago. It is the Australian captain (Cummins). He has done a bloody good job over a long period of time," he signed off.

Coming to Khawaja's statements, the southpaw had said to Nine as per Cricinfo,"It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us. In an ideal world, I don't want to do this. I don't want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now."

"Maybe I thought Davey would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn't think it was going to come down to this. But the longer it is gone on for, and right from the very start, I have been on the train of collectively taking it," he added.

Khawaja said he had urged the Australian team to take collective responsibility for the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, insisting that everyone knew what was happening. He expressed disappointment that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were left to shoulder the blame, adding that Warner had faced repeated criticism over the past eight years while remaining silent.

"Even in the change rooms when I was talking to them after the game. I said, 'Take this as a team'. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we had to take it as a team, and so I was always of that stance. Obviously, it didn't work that way, and those three guys got crucified. I have seen Davey over the last eight years just get nailed bad over and over again, and it's taken a big man not to say anything and just to stay quiet," Khawaja added.

Khawaja highlighted the lasting impact of the 2018 scandal on Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith. He noted that Bancroft has struggled to regain his place in the Test side despite consistently scoring runs, while Smith successfully rebuilt his career but has never forgotten the events of that year.

"And then 'Bangers' [Bancroft], in the same note, particularly, he played a little bit of Test cricket after that, but then never came back in, even though he's been scoring a lot of runs. He's been a terrific cricketer for a long time, but I know it's something that hangs over his head," Khawaja said.

"Even Steve Smith. Steve's lucky, the greatest batsman of my generation. He came back from that, and he is come back as good as he ever was in that first Ashes series, and it is kind of been forgotten for him in some respects. But I know he has never forgotten that year and how it all panned out," he added.

Khawaja said he spoke out because he believed Smith, Warner and Bancroft deserved justice and should not continue bearing the blame alone. He added that none of the three wanted to break their silence, fearing their accounts would be dismissed as hearsay, which prompted him to speak on their behalf.

"But I am not doing this for any other reason than I think it is the right thing to do. I have always felt like there is more to life than just cricket, and these guys, in some respect, deserve that justice. And it just does not feel like anyone's going to give it to them. None of those three wants to be the first to say anything. And rightly so, it will just be hearsay and 'their word' if they do. They needed someone else to say something," he said.

Khawaja also revealed that Cricket Australia never interviewed him during its investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal. The probe, led by then head of integrity Iain Roy and team performance manager Pat Howard, followed the Cape Town Test and resulted in sanctions against Smith, Warner and Bancroft.

"I was sitting next to Cam Bancroft that whole Test match, and I didn't get interviewed. I thoroughly feel that I didn't get interviewed because of that, because they knew that I wanted to take it as a team, because they knew I was ready to tell the truth if I was interviewed," he concluded. (ANI)