Usman Khawaja has publicly defended the ball-tampering revelations in his upcoming autobiography, Sabr, which is scheduled for release on November 10, 2026. On November 8, Khawaja posted two videos on Instagram in which he argued that the blame for the 2018 Cape Town sandpaper affair should be shared far more widely than the three players who were sanctioned.
Khawaja stated that he had made a promise to his childhood friend and long-time opening partner David Warner that he would tell the truth. He said he felt that Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft had taken the blame on behalf of the entire Australian squad that toured South Africa in 2018. Book extracts published by News Corp detail Khawaja’s account that a player applied sandpaper to the ball in the Australian changeroom during the second Test against South Africa at St George’s Park, and that the knowledge of what was happening extended well beyond the three men who were ultimately punished.
“I made a promise to my childhood friend David Warner that I would tell the truth, so he could tell a story. I’m absolutely 100 percent unapologetic for that. I stuck up for all cricketers in the past through the ACA, fighting for what I thought was right. This is no different. The guys that are currently in the team right now and the other people that were there on the South African tour, including me, we’re not the victims. These three guys took the blame for all of us. They’re the victims. People telling them that they’re cheats, getting nailed by the crowd, public humiliation. These three guys deserve justice, and I haven’t pointed fingers at anyone. I’m still searching for what I was searching all those 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. You know what? I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Khawaja said in an Instagram post.
Why did Khawaja say nothing for years while he was still playing?
Khawaja addressed directly the question of why he stayed silent throughout the four years he continued to represent Australia after the Cape Town Test in March 2018. He acknowledged the discomfort of being inside a team where some players did not want the subject revisited, and said he was conscious that anything he did or said carried weight within the squad environment.
“So then you ask, why didn’t I say anything in those four years while I was still playing? You know what, I never wanted to be the first guy to chat about this. Call me a chicken or whatever you want. I didn’t know how to do it because I was still in the team. How was I ever supposed to bring this up when I knew some of my team-mates didn’t want to talk about it? I knew everything I did or said always influenced and affected the team,” he said.
Khawaja also stated that he had not been comfortable going to war with teammates who were still active in the game, and that he had not wanted to be the first person to speak publicly about the scandal. He retired from international cricket in January 2026 after 88 Tests, and it is only now, after stepping away from the game, that he has chosen to put his account on record. He also noted that a 2021 joint statement issued publicly by bowlers left him feeling unable to add his own voice at that time, a situation he described as having frustrated both him and Warner.
What did Khawaja claim about Smith’s role after the Cape Town Test?
Khawaja’s account in his memoir, ‘Sabr ‘, includes two separate occasions on which he says he tried to speak out, and on both occasions he was persuaded not to. The first came immediately after the Cape Town Test in 2018, when Cricket Australia’s integrity investigation concluded that prior knowledge of the ball-tampering was confined to Warner, Smith and Bancroft. Warner was banned from international cricket for 12 months and Bancroft received a nine-month ban from domestic cricket. Khawaja claims that at that point he wanted to go public and tell the media what he knew.
“Smudge [Smith] being the man and leader he was 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,” Khawaja wrote.
The second attempt came in 2021, when Khawaja says he spoke to Bancroft after a Guardian interview in which Bancroft made comments about the affair. Khawaja claims Smith again indicated he wanted to ‘come clean in the media’ at that stage, with the revelations angering both Khawaja and Warner.
Khawaja’s position throughout the Instagram videos was that the three sanctioned players deserved to have the full picture acknowledged, and that his book is his attempt to deliver on the promise he made to Warner that the truth would eventually be told.
