‘Didn’t like Australia being strong’: Glenn McGrath claims only those with ‘agendas’ want to keep talking about Sandpapergate originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
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Glenn McGrath has hit out at those who keep reopening the Sandpapergate controversy.
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The fast-bowling great believes a hidden motive sits behind the renewed noise around 2018.
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MORE: AUS used sandpaper even before 2018? MacGill reveals how he used to rough up balls
Glenn McGrath breaks silence on Sandpapergate row, urges Cricket Australia to respond
Glenn McGrath doesn’t think Australia’s rivals ever enjoyed watching the team at its strongest, and he is convinced that only people with agendas want the Sandpapergate story to carry on.
The former fast bowler, who took 563 Test wickets and stood at the heart of Australia’s dominant years from the 1990s into the 2000s, has chosen to speak out as the ball-tampering row of 2018 returns to the front pages.
The scandal, which unfolded during the Newlands Test in South Africa, is now eight years old, but it has come back to life in November 2026 after Usman Khawaja’s autobiography, Sabr, made a claim about what the team knew.
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In the book, Khawaja suggests that “it was all of us” who were aware of what was going on, a line that has pulled the whole episode back under the spotlight.
David Warner then went on to back Khawaja’s version of events, which he described as “100% accurate”. Fresh reports have since named former bowling coach David Saker as the unnamed coach who is said to have told Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to lie about the sandpaper.
Glenn McGrath on Sandpapergate: The past should stay in the past
McGrath has now responded to the Sandpapergate scandal and dismissed the renewed interest as the work of people with their own motives. His comments also highlight a gap between the older generation, which grew up in a ruthless winning era, and the current players who have to live with the fallout.
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McGrath made it clear that he isn’t defending the act itself, and he began his remarks with a blunt judgement of the players involved.
He said: “No one’s saying that what they did is not wrong. They were bloody idiots for what they did; they should never have done it. I’m a big fan of leaving the past in the past, but learn from it.”
MORE: ‘Raises more questions’: Johnson calls out Khawaja for dodging questions on Cummins
The legendary bowler then moved on to the bigger question of what the game gains from digging into the story again.
“We’re all custodians of this great game. What’s the benefit to the game of cricket by wanting to find out all these answers? There is no benefit positively to the game of Test cricket. Cricket Australia come out: ‘Yeah, we’ve dealt with that in the past. This is Usman’s story, this is how he feels,’ and just leave it at that, move on.”
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McGrath saved his harshest criticism for those he believes are keeping the story going. He pointed to the media’s appetite for stories and to critics in other countries who, in his words, have never been comfortable with Australia’s strength.
He said: “It’s only people with agendas that want this to keep going. Journalists, they love it ’cause they’ve got stories to write. Other countries, you know, they can use that against Australia, and other journalists from other countries that didn’t like Australia being so strong-oh, they’ll they’ll love it, they will use it: ‘Oh, we’ve got to keep it going.'”
MORE: ‘Raises more questions’: Johnson calls out Khawaja for dodging questions on Cummins
Should Sandpapergate be put in the past before all questions are answered?
McGrath makes a fair point when he says the original act was wrong and should be left behind, and few people would argue with his first few sentences. However, his wider claim is harder to accept, because it treats every question about the scandal as the product of a hidden motive.
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When a player of Khawaja’s standing writes about what he saw, and a former teammate like Warner supports him, the interest isn’t some invented controversy.
That said, his call for Cricket Australia to speak up is the strongest part of his argument. A clear, honest statement would do more to end the speculation than any amount of public frustration from past players, since silence leaves a gap that rumours and reports are always ready to fill. It would also treat Khawaja’s story with the respect that McGrath himself says it deserves.
Where McGrath is right is that a game can’t keep living in 2018 forever. The lesson, as he puts it, is to learn from it, and that is exactly what Australian cricket must now show it has done. If the board answers the new claims directly, the saga can finally fade, and the focus can return to the cricket.
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