Turnbull hits back after Khawaja’s claims he played politics in sandpapergate

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has hit back at claims by Usman Khawaja that he had used the sandpaper scandal for political gain.

Khawaja took aim at the ex-prime minister in his newly released autobiography, Sabr, which has thrust the 2018 ball-tampering affair back in the limelight.

The Australian touring party in South Africa led by Steve Smith had not comprehended the full weight of what was to come when they went to bed following the infamous third day’s play of the third Test at Newlands, where Cameron Bancroft was caught with sandpaper on the field.

“The next morning, the world had been turned upside down,” Khawaja writes in his book. “Even the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who had no idea about cricket – and we knew this because we met him at the annual tea event with the PM at Kirribilli – had his two cents about the topic.

“I felt like he was trying to use this as political leverage on his already failing prime ministership. But it lit a fire in Australia. Because once the PM got involved, everyone was in on it.”

Turnbull, who is overseas, told this masthead on Wednesday he stood by what he said at the time.

“I’m surprised that Usman thinks the only reason this was big deal was because the prime minister said he was disappointed,” he said. “I think every Australian was disappointed. I don’t think I said anything unusual or remarkable.”

Asked whether Cricket Australia should re-open its investigation into the events of eight years ago, which it has refused to do, he replied: “I don’t want to express a view on what Cricket Australia should or should not do, eight years on and from the other end of the world.”

He added: “If indeed Steve Smith took the blame for a lot of other people who didn’t put their hand up, others who didn’t should maybe reflect on that. They should reflect on their silence, if what Khawaja says is right. I know there are some people who contest it.”

David Warner’s manager James Erskine said this week that CA had been reacting to what Turnbull had said by imposing such heavy penalties on players.

Warner and then captain Smith were each banned for a year while Bancroft copped nine months.

Turnbull pulled no punches on the day Australians woke to learn of what had transpired in South Africa, saying he had spoken to CA chairman David Peever and “expressed to him very clearly and unequivocally my disappointment and my concern about the events in South Africa”.

“Look, we all woke up this morning, shocked and bitterly disappointed by the news from South Africa,” he told reporters on the day. “It seemed completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating. After all our cricketers are role models and cricket is synonymous with fair play. How can our team be engaged in cheating? It beggars belief.”

Turnbull said Peever had told him “Cricket Australia will be responding decisively, as they should”.

“It’s their responsibility to deal with it but I have to say the whole nation who holds those who wear the baggy green up on a pedestal – about as high as you can get in Australia, higher than any politician that’s for sure – this is a shocking disappointment and it’s wrong and I look forward to Cricket Australia taking decisive action soon,” he said.

Khawaja and Warner have criticised the CA investigation on the ground in South Africa, saying it was not carried out thoroughly.

Khawaja said he was not even interviewed as part of the process even though he sat next to Bancroft in the dressing-room at Newlands.