Lahore (Sports Desk) — Australian captain Pat Cummins has said he is not concerned about potential revelations regarding the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in the upcoming autobiography of his former teammate Usman Khawaja.
According to details, Usman Khawaja recently informed Cummins about the publication of his book, which is scheduled to be released in November. Australia will begin a Test series against South Africa in Durban on Friday.
This will be Australia’s first Test tour of South Africa since the Sandpaper Gate controversy emerged during the Cape Town Test in 2018. The scandal resulted in suspensions for then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batter Cameron Bancroft.
Cameron Bancroft was caught rubbing sandpaper on the ball, while Steve Smith later admitted that the team’s leadership group had been involved in the plan to alter the ball’s condition.
Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon have consistently denied having prior knowledge of the plan to alter the ball’s condition. In a joint statement issued in 2021, the four bowlers said they learned about the incident after seeing the images on television screens.
According to Cummins, Usman Khawaja called him a few weeks ago to inform him about the publication of his book. The Australian captain said Khawaja had every right to tell his story and that all questions had already been answered during the investigation into the incident.
He added that the Australian team had moved on from the past and that his focus was now on captaincy.