‘Haven’t paid much attention’: Mitchell Starc denies Usman Khawaja’s allegation that bowlers were aware of sandpaper use in 2018 originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
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Australia pace star Mitchell Starc has repeated his version of events from Sandpapergate.
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Usman Khawaja’s autobiography has revived one of cricket’s most painful and divisive scandals.
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In a latest video, Khawaja has responded to critics who questioned his motives for telling the story.
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Did Australian bowlers know about Sandpapergate? Mitchell Starc responds to Usman Khawaja
Mitchell Starc has made it clear that the Australian bowlers weren’t aware of any sandpaper plan in 2018, and he has no intention of changing that account now.
The left-arm quick was responding to Usman Khawaja’s autobiography, which claims that every member of the touring team knew what was being planned during the Cape Town Test.
Starc was speaking at the Kayo Sports and Fox Cricket season launch, where he was asked about the claims. He did not hide the fact that he had paid little attention to the debate, but he was firm on the one point that matters to him, which is that his memory of the events has not shifted in the slightest.
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The background to his stance is a joint statement released in 2021, after Cameron Bancroft gave an interview to The Guardian that raised fresh doubts about the official version of events. Starc, along with Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, said at the time that none of the four bowlers had known about the use of sandpaper on the ball.
However, Khawaja’s book has now contradicted that statement, and it has pushed an old controversy back into the headlines.
“Yeah, that’s the first I was aware of any of that taking place in PE (second Test) was when (Khawaja said it) … I’ll leave that for said authors to explain,” Starc said.
He went on to admit that he had not followed the discussion closely, and he pointed out that opinions from eight years ago were bound to differ.
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“I haven’t really paid much attention to be fair, obviously there’s differing opinions of eight years ago,” he said.
“We were heavily drilled through the process at the time, and since and I guess I won’t speak on behalf of the bowlers, but where I stand, my opinion hasn’t changed. My recollection hasn’t changed from what we said in 2021.”
His final remarks drew a narrow line around what the joint statement actually covered, which was the question of whether the bowlers knew anything was being taken onto the field.
“As far as our statement said, we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field, that’s where I’ll leave it.”
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