The infamous ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australia during the 2018 tour of South Africa has returned to the spotlight, with former Australian batter Usman Khawaja, in his new book, Sabr, blowing the whistle on the controversial saga. Khawaja has claimed that the whole team had the knowledge of the infamous incident. 

Notably, Cricket Australia had concluded that David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft had been involved in the ball-tampering plan. Smith and Warner received 12-month suspensions, while Bancroft was banned for nine months. 

Moreover, Smith was removed from the captaincy, and Warner was barred from holding a leadership position in Australian cricket. Khawaja, in extracts published in the Sydney Morning Herald, has outlined that discussions about manipulating the ball may have taken place within the Australian dressing room much earlier in the South African tour.

“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja stated. 

“At this point Smith essentially threw his hands in the air and said he didn't want to know," Khawaja wrote.

The incident came to light during the Cape Town Test when television cameras captured Bancroft using a small piece of yellow sandpaper to roughen one side of the ball.

“We did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands,” Khawaja asserted. 

Khawaja was also left surprised after not being asked to provide any information during Cricket Australia's investigation.

“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,” he said.

In the aftermath of the incident, Khawaja had urged his teammates to take collective responsibility.

"I said: 'Take this as a team. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we have to take it as a team’.”