Former Australian opening batter Usman Khawaja has come up with a massive revelation, claiming that the entire Australian squad was aware of the use of Sandpaper during the Newlands Test in 2018.
For the unversed, the then Australian Test captain Steve Smith asserted that the leadership group was aware of the incident. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Khawaja has made an unexpected statement, stunning everyone in the cricketing fraternity.
“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Further, Khawaja admitted that he never wanted to be the person to speak publicly about the truth, believing that someone else, possibly David Warner, would have addressed the matter over the past eight years. However, with the issue remaining unresolved, he felt compelled to speak out, reiterating that accountability should be shared collectively.
“In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth. The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now. Maybe I thought Davey (David Warner) would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn’t think it was going to come down to this. But the longer it’s gone on for, and right from the very start, I’ve been on the train of collectively taking it,” he added.
Khawaja’s comments contradict the views previously expressed by several prominent Australian cricketers, including Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.
