‘Everyone knew’: Fast bowler reveals sandpaper was used in earlier Test

Former Australian bowler Chadd Sayers has blown the sandpapergate ball-tampering scandal wide open, backing Usman Khawaja’s assertion that the whole Australian Test cricket squad in South Africa in 2018 knew of the plot to scratch the match ball and that they started doing it in the Port Elizabeth Test – one game before Cameron Bancroft was caught in Cape Town.

“I’m pretty confident to say that everyone knew,” Sayers told radio station SEN, for whom he commentated Sunday’s one-day international between Australia and England.

Sayers, who did not play in Port Elizabeth — now Gqeberha — or Cape Town but made his debut in the following Test in Johannesburg also revealed that, as a fringe player in the squad, he came onto the field with drinks at a break in play earlier in that series and collected sandpaper from Bancroft and disposed of it. He said that happened before TV cameras caught Bancroft trying to conceal sandpaper down his pants in Cape Town.

“[The sandpaper] was given to me to take off. That wasn’t planned or anything. I was just the player who took the drinks out at the time. I recall it was a wicket or a drinks break after tea,” Sayers said.

Asked when he became aware during that series that sandpaper was being used on the ball, Sayers replied: “In Port Elizabeth … it was used in two Test matches, and there were discussions in change rooms of how we were going get the ball to reverse and what was going to be used … there was numerous conversations of it around the change rooms.”

He said, like Bancroft, he was a young player trying to fit into the Australian side at the time.

“I believe everyone in that side knew what was going on and what was being used,” Sayers said.

“Sandpaper was passed to me and I took it off.”

Sayers said he did not want to take sides in the saga, but was relieved that Khawaja had revealed the truth in his autobiography, Sabr, released last week.

Although keen to emphasise his neutrality in the debate that is tearing at Australian cricket, Sayers said he found it difficult to watch Test captain Pat Cummins’ media conference on Friday, where Cummins disputed Khawaja’s version of events and made clear he had no knowledge of any plot by the Australian team to use sandpaper on the match ball in those Test matches.

Sayers said he found it too “awkward” to watch all of Cummins’ media conference on Friday.

“I didn’t like how he did go at Usman and got personal. I probably get why, but I just don’t think it needed to happen,” Sayers said.

Khawaja was spotted at Sydney Airport on Sunday, where he issued his first public comment since Cummins’ media conference.

“What I wrote in my book is what I wrote in my book and it’s the truth,” he told The Australian.

“That’s all I have to say.”

The claims by Sayers will put serious pressure and scrutiny back on Cummins following his forthright and unflinching performance for the media on Friday.

“It’s been hard [staying quiet] because you’ve got to tiptoe around it and can’t tell the truth,” Sayers said about the eight years that have passed since the scandal.

He said he was often asked about it by the public, and the events had overshadowed what should have been a joyous tour for him, given he made his Test debut in South Africa.

Sayers said he was often asked about it by the public, and the events had overshadowed what should have been a joyous tour for him, given he made his Test debut in South Africa.

His comments came as Davis Warner’s manager James Erskine increased pressure on CA to release the report of the 2018 investigation conducted by CA’s then head of integrity Iain Roy, and to also open a new probe now more information has been publicly revealed.

Erskine told this masthead on Sunday the former Australian vice-captain would not have signed off on the statement agreeing to his year-long suspension for the sandpaper plot had he known three of the star bowlers involved in the Cape Town game – Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – had been interviewed by CA as part of its investigation.

Erskine said Warner had now asked to review all the statements given to Roy, who conducted the quick probe ordered by former CA chief executive James Sutherland immediately after Cape Town Test. Warner was then presented with statements by Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and fast bowler Pat Cummins, before signing off on his ban.

“The Roy report has never come out. Roy was basically muzzled, signed a NDA and ended up leaving Cricket Australia,” Erskine said.

“When David was told these people had made statements, he was not told it included those bowlers [Lyon, Starc and Hazlewood].

“He has now proven without any hesitation that in 2018, Cricket Australia withheld information. They told him these were the only people that had been interviewed, but it wasn’t true. He was told in 2018 one was Pat Cummins, and the others being Smith, Bancroft and him.”

A CA spokesman on Sunday said there was still no intention to reopen the investigation.

“As we have stated, we respect the right of those in South Africa in 2018 to share their version of what they believe happened on that tour,” the CA spokeperson said.

“The significant differences in the views expressed continues to demonstrate that it is very unlikely an agreed version of events will be reached without relevant material evidence.”

Erskine said Warner did not know what Cummins, Lyon, Hazlewood and Starc had said.

Smith, at the time the Australian captain, was also given a year-long ban, while Bancroft was suspended for nine months. Smith has yet to speak publicly since Khawaja’s book was released.

On Saturday, Warner dropped a bombshell on social media, declaring “as far as he was aware”, Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon had not been interviewed. But two sources later confirmed to this masthead the trio had been interviewed.

Warner returned to Instagram on Sunday to add: “Just to clarify ‘as far as a I am aware’ was the POINT. I was never told the bowlers had been interviewed or provided statements. That information would’ve been pretty useful when I was forced to make decisions in 2018. Why weren’t we given all the evidence by CA?”

He has been vocal about Khawaja’s claim the whole Australian team knew of the plan to tamper with the ball, which Cummins vehemently rejected on Friday.

Sayers was not interviewed by CA in South Africa and said he was unaware the governing body established a “hotline” a year later for members for the touring party to anonymously reveal what happened.

He said the entire squad sat in their change rooms and debriefed for “60 to 90 minutes” on the day Bancroft was caught with the sandpaper to discuss “where to next”. He said he had a “vague” recollection that, as Khawaja claims, there were two players who objected to the idea of the team taking collective responsibility. Sayers refused to name those players.

Asked about the findings of the CA investigation in 2018 that led to Bancroft, Warner and Smith’s bans from the sport, Sayers said: “I was a bit curious as to why only those three knew when I knew as well, and I thought other people knew as well”.

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