The only winner out of Khawaja’s bombshell is the saga’s villain

November 8, 2026 — 4:00am

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Usman Khawaja’s explosive claims about the ball tampering scandal is the last thing Pat Cummins needed.

As Cummins confronts the dual challenge of a faltering team and a rare form trough, the captain now also faces a public examination over his integrity.

The inquisition over whether he should have bowled first in the Cape Town decider is small fry compared to the questions raised by Khawaja’s account in his autobiography, Sabr, of what happened eight years earlier in South Africa.

The timing of Khawaja’s fresh evidence can be questioned – and was by many in and around the game on Saturday – but the substance of what he told this masthead marries up with much of what has long been said privately in Australian cricket circles.

That more people knew about the sandpaper plot in Cape Town than the three men who took the fall for it – Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

Sandpaper scandal reviewer calls for fresh probe as Lehmann questions Khawaja’s........

© Brisbane Times