Cummins rejects Khawaja's account of team's sandpaper knowledge

Australia's Test captain denies a wider ball-tampering scheme and says his friendship with Khawaja does not remove responsibility for public accusations.

Channel: 9 News Australia ·

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#LIVE: Pat Cummins breaks silence over ‘sandpapergate’ scandal

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12:54Cummins arrives at the microphones after the starting screen and press-room preparations.
13:24He denies that the wider team knew sandpaper would be taken onto the field.
13:53Cummins says he was shocked by Khawaja's reported account of warning Bancroft about sandpaper.
14:22He calls Khawaja a friend but says friendship carries responsibilities toward each other's reputations.
18:23Under questioning about ball alteration, Cummins denies there was a master plan to use illegal methods.

Pat Cummins has denied that Australia's wider cricket team knew sandpaper would be taken onto the field during the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, responding to allegations in a book by former teammate Usman Khawaja.

At a press conference carried by Australian broadcaster 9 News Australia, the Test captain directly challenged Khawaja's account: "If by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he's 100% wrong."

The dispute revisits the scandal at Newlands in Cape Town, South Africa, where television cameras caught Cameron Bancroft trying to roughen the ball with sandpaper. Altering the ball's surface was intended to make it swing in flight. The question Cummins addresses here is how far knowledge of the plan extended beyond those already implicated.

"He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense," Cummins said.

Cummins also said he was shocked to learn of what he described as Khawaja's admission that he had warned Bancroft to be careful when using sandpaper. That account remains Cummins' description of Khawaja's words, rather than an independently established finding from the press conference.

His response became personal without abandoning the central denial. "Usman's a friend, but friends aren't casual with each other's lives and reputations," he said.

Journalists went on to question him about reverse swing, dressing-room conversations and whether broader plans to alter the ball had been discussed. Cummins denied any organised illegal approach: "There was no master plan around using illegal methods."

For viewers opening the full broadcast, Cummins reaches the microphones just before the thirteen-minute mark, after a lengthy starting screen and room preparations.

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