Anyone interested in the integrity of sport must ask Cricket Australia this question

November 11, 2026 — 2:30pm

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I was there when Usman Khawaja hit twin tons at the SCG on his return to the Test side in 2022. I remember the roar of the crowd and his imitation of LeBron James’ iconic ‘Silencer’ celebration like it was yesterday.

As a cricketer of South Asian descent, one who played for the same junior rep cricket side as Khawaja, I’d always looked up to him as a role model. His languid, laissez-faire technique masked a tenacity to continually work his way back into wearing the Baggy Green, and it was a characteristic I always tried to emulate, albeit with far less success.

I just wish he hadn’t done the interview with this masthead before releasing his book.

The fallout from Khawaja’s revelations on ‘Sandpapergate’ has been extraordinary. If his account is true, which his former teammate and childhood friend David Warner has endorsed, it raises serious questions about whether the initial investigation uncovered the full extent of what happened during one of the darkest episodes in Australian sporting history.

Yet that hasn’t been what public discourse has been about. It’s been ‘why now and not when your teammates received their bans?’ It’s been fatigue from a story that’s hung over the team for more than eight years, and most prevalently it’s been ‘he’s just doing........

© Brisbane Times