New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) Former Australia batter Usman Khawaja has disclosed that the team used sandpaper to alter the ball during the 2018 Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, detailing how the practice helped generate considerable reverse swing well before the infamous Cape Town ball-tampering scandal brought the issue into the spotlight.
New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) Former Australia batter Usman Khawaja has disclosed that the team used sandpaper to alter the ball during the 2018 Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, detailing how the practice helped generate considerable reverse swing well before the infamous Cape Town ball-tampering scandal brought the issue into the spotlight.
In his autobiography Sabr, released on Tuesday, Khawaja revisits the second Test at St George’s Park, where South Africa suffered a dramatic collapse in the final session of the second day, losing four wickets for 28 runs while replying to Australia’s first-innings total of 243.
Khawaja’s account describes how Cameron Bancroft worked on the ball during the interval, preparing it before the players returned to the field. Recalling the condition of the ball and the movement generated by Australia’s bowlers, he wrote:
“The next session, we absolutely went through the South Africans. Bangers had walked onto the field after the break, picked up the ball that the umpires had left on the field, and given it a few twists and turns. The ball came up a treat. The shiny side was shiny and, thanks to sandpaper, the reverse side was really rough and dry.
“Every time during the session the ball was passed to me at gully, I’d take a look and think, Wow, even I could reverse swing this ball.. It was ridiculous. The bowlers then went to work and bowled beautifully. Reversing it around corners. We got four wickets for 28 runs,” Khawaja wrote, as quoted by Cricinfo.
The former opener also recalled a conversation in the huddle after one of the wickets, when a bowler expressed surprise at the amount of movement the ball was generating.
“It was moving so much that, at one point, one of the bowlers said in the huddle after a wicket, ‘Guys, it’s going heaps now. Just don’t do anything else to it, because it’s silly how much it’s going.’ Most of us laughed. (And we weren’t planning to do anything else. The damage had been done to the ball straight after the break.)
“I know what you’re probably thinking right now. Didn’t you guys get caught in Cape Town, not Port Elizabeth? Yes, we did, but who said we didn’t do it the game before as well?”
South Africa had begun the session at 153 for two, with Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla building an 88-run stand. Khawaja highlighted the difference in how quickly the two sides were able to generate reverse swing, writing that the hosts had achieved it “in less than 25 overs”, while Australia had needed “40, 50 overs and, in this innings at Port Elizabeth, we weren’t even close.”
He also recalled cautioning Bancroft about the scrutiny surrounding international cricket, writing that he told him “this isn’t Shield cricket” given the number of cameras covering the match.
Australia’s bowling burst, however, did not prove decisive. AB de Villiers produced an unbeaten 126 off 146 deliveries to help South Africa recover and build a match-winning lead. Khawaja described the innings as “one of the great innings” and “epic to watch, especially with how much reverse swing we were getting.”
Australia were eventually bowled out for 239 in their second innings, with South Africa completing a six-wicket victory. Khawaja also recalled how the home side’s bowlers generated reverse swing during the chase.
“In our second innings, their bowlers were reverse swinging it everywhere, and it started after about 21 overs. We didn’t know what they were doing with the ball – all we knew was that they were better than us at getting it to go reverse. And we were using sandpaper!”
Khawaja’s account also revisits the fallout from the Cape Town scandal and the subsequent investigation by Cricket Australia, which identified Bancroft, David Warner and Steven Smith as the three players with prior knowledge of the incident. Khawaja was not interviewed as part of the inquiry.
He recalled being “pissed off” after one of the bowlers appeared on television and denied knowing anything about the ball-tampering episode.
“One of the bowlers went on The Back Page TV show and was asked point-blank if he’d known anything about the ball tampering. He flat out denied it. David was seething, and understandably so. I remember him texting me and sending the clip.”
The former batter also wrote that he had considered speaking publicly before the final Test in Johannesburg, after the suspensions had already been imposed. He approached then-head coach Darren Lehmann at the hotel pool to discuss the matter.
“He listened to what I had to say, and when I finished my rant he just looked at me and said, “Uzzy, unfortunately, this affects everyone, mate, not just you. You can come out and say all this stuff, but will it really help anything? The punishments have already been handed down. If anything, it would only make things worse.’”
Lehmann, who resigned before the Johannesburg Test, later told ABC Grandstand on Saturday that he had no recollection of Khawaja’s dressing-room plea in Cape Town for the team to accept collective responsibility. However, he was not asked about the subsequent conversation at the hotel.
Khawaja’s revelations extend beyond the South Africa tour, with the former opener also describing how Australia worked on the ball during the 2017-18 Ashes, particularly in the Perth and Adelaide Tests.
“On day five, Starcy bowled that unforgettable ball to James Vince off the crack,” he writes. “We were reverse swinging it late on day five. Actually, we were reverse swinging the ball the game before too – except it was much tougher, because it was the pink ball. But we – and I say ‘we’, because were a team, whether you did the deed or not – had worked out that, if we raised the flaps up on the quarter seam on that ball, it was almost like it had a rudder on it and it’d start reverse swinging.
“And before you start going at me, calm down. The whole world was doing whatever little they could to try and reverse swing the ball.”
The latest disclosures provide further detail on Khawaja’s account of Australia’s use of the ball during the 2017-18 season, extending the discussion beyond the Cape Town Test that led to the bans of Bancroft, Warner and Smith.
–IANS
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