Pat Cummins says Khawaja’s claim ‘complete and utter nonsense’
Cummins says he was “genuinely shocked” this week amid the comments in Khawaja’s book. He went on:
double quotation markWhen he says we all knew, if that he means we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he’s 100% wrong. I said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening …
He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball-tamper with sandpaper. That’s complete and utter nonsense.
Cummins goes on to say he believes Khawaja’s book has “been casual with my lives and the lives of many others, and I think Australian cricket”.
Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins speaks to the media 13 November, 2026. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 23.44 CET
Key events
‘I think he’s wrong’, Cummins says
A reporter just asked about the difference in stories. Cummins replied:
double quotation markThat’s my story, so I think he’s wrong.
He went on to say there appeared to be a “few big leaps” in the book and Khawaja had been “vague” and acted in a “very casual matter”:
double quotation markThe details really matter in that difference. So perhaps there was conversations with Cameron Bancroft around taking sandpaper out and how to do it. That doesn’t mean that everyone in that dressing room knew what was going on.
Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins speaks to the media during a press conference at Cricket Central on November 13, 2026. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 23.42 CET
‘There was no master plan around using illegal methods’
Pat Cummins:
double quotation markThere was no master plan around using illegal methods. I think that’s maybe something that hasn’t been spoken about enough. People assume you have gone from very legal methods to suddenly taking sandpaper and then there must have been some huge master plan.
That is not the case …
There’s no grand plan, there’s no team meeting, there’s no bowlers saying ‘this is what must happen’.
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Updated at 23.39 CET
Cummins: ‘I did not see anything on the ball’
Cummins was asked how the ball looked at the time.
double quotation markAt that stage, you know, even the umpires had a look. We didn’t know it had been altered with sandpaper.
Balls get roughened up every time we play. So, you know, whether that’s from a foreign object or something that’s totally legal and part of the game. Sometimes it’s hard to know. But out there in the field I did not see anything on the ball.
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Updated at 23.36 CET
Pat Cummins says Khawaja’s claim ‘complete and utter nonsense’
Cummins says he was “genuinely shocked” this week amid the comments in Khawaja’s book. He went on:
double quotation markWhen he says we all knew, if that he means we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he’s 100% wrong. I said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening …
He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball-tamper with sandpaper. That’s complete and utter nonsense.
Cummins goes on to say he believes Khawaja’s book has “been casual with my lives and the lives of many others, and I think Australian cricket”.
Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins speaks to the media 13 November, 2026. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 23.44 CET
Cummins is fronting the media now.
Australian Test cricket captain Pat Cummins speaks to the media during a press conference at Cricket Central on November 13, 2026 in Sydney. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 23.44 CET
Khawaja memoir ‘readable, surprisingly revealing, sometimes painfully frank’
Gideon Haigh, writing for the Guardian this week, says the greatest shame of the controversy inflamed by Usman Khawaja’s memoir, Sabr, is that “99% of those opining about it will never read it”.
double quotation markThey will experience it by quotes and summaries, magnified and distorted, elided and exaggerated, shaped by voyeurism and schadenfreude.
In fact, Sabr is a readable, surprisingly revealing, sometimes painfully frank book about a unique career.
Haigh says Khawaja was among the most talented batters in an Australian generation “when it was not in oversupply”, but points out he played in only 22% of the national team’s total fixtures over that period.
double quotation markIf he developed a carapace to deal with such endless disappointment, should that surprise anyone?
Sabr might mean patience or resilience in Urdu, but a strength of Khawaja’s testament is that he allows the impatience to show through.
It is a cranky book because, perhaps, a degree of crankiness is what it takes to come back and back and back, when one is never sure one’s abilities are appreciated and one’s face fits.
Read more here:
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Updated at 23.30 CET
Jack Snape
Starc statement: ‘we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field’
Earlier this week, Mitchell Starc denied claims made in Khawaja’s book.
Starc broke his silence to address Khawaja’s comments, saying he was not aware that sandpaper was used in the Test before Cape Town, nor during the Newlands match. The paceman said his recollection of the match had not changed from what the bowlers said in a statement issued in 2021, which denied all knowledge of the ball-tampering plan.
He said:
double quotation markAs far as our statement said, we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field, that’s where I’ll leave it. We weren’t aware anything was taken on to the field to be tampered with. We saw [the sandpaper] on the big screen in Cape Town.
As far as the book is concerned, I haven’t read it. I probably won’t read it. So that’s for Usman to elaborate on.
I’ll stick to what I said five years ago, what I said at the time, eight years ago. Clearly, there’s different versions from different people, and I’ll leave it where I left it back then.
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Updated at 23.30 CET
A quick recap of how we got here …
In 2018, during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town, Australia’s opening batter, Cameron Bancroft, was caught on TV using sandpaper against one side of the cricket ball.
An investigation revealed the tampering was planned by the captain, Steve Smith, and vice-captain, David Warner. Both, as well as Bancroft, received bans from international and local cricket.
Fast-forward to now – and former Australian batter Usman Khawaja alleged in his autobiography, Sabr: Finding My Way in Cricket and Life, that the use of sandpaper was widespread.
Khawaja alleged the tampering happened earlier in the series at Port Elizabeth and that the entire team knew about it. Cummins has not commented – until now.
Read more from our reporter, Jack Snape:
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Updated at 23.25 CET
Welcome
The Australian cricket captain, Pat Cummins, is to speak for the first time on the sandpaper scandal since allegations about ball tampering from his former teammate Usman Khawaja.
Cummins posted to social media that he would speak to reporters on Friday morning at Cricket NSW’s headquarters in Sydney.
double quotation markI’m training at Cricket Central tomorrow morning before the Blues play in the Shield match.
Happy to speak with any and all media about the events of this week at 9.30 am.
I’ve taken some time to try and better understand the long list and full extent of Uzzy’s allegations so I can respond properly.
Afterwards please stay and support the Blues!
I’ll ask CA to send out details
Stay with us.
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Updated at 23.19 CET
