Cummins Denies Prior Knowledge of Sandpaper Plot

Australian Test captain Pat Cummins has firmly rejected claims made in Usman Khawaja’s autobiography that the entire 2018 squad knew sandpaper would be used during the Cape Town Test against South Africa.

Pat Cummins: “When (Usman Khawaja) says ‘we all knew’, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he’s 100 percent wrong.” https://t.co/gmmCqhXGkI

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) November 12, 2026

Speaking at an emotional press conference, Cummins insisted he had no knowledge of the plan. He described himself and others as not being “architects of a scheme,” and expressed shock at Khawaja’s alleged warning to Cameron Bancroft.

The denial was unequivocal, but the setting was not. Cummins appeared visibly affected as he addressed the allegations, an emotional register that divided observers and reignited debate over a scandal that has never fully receded from Australian cricket’s collective memory.

The fallout from Cape Town produced bans for Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft. Official investigations cleared other players, Cummins among them. That distinction between those punished and those exonerated has long formed the fault line in discussions of the affair, and Khawaja’s account has reopened it.

Cummins acknowledged Khawaja’s right to speak while expressing a hope that the matter can now be put behind them. The two positions sit uneasily together, as they must: a defence of a teammate’s freedom to tell his story, and a wish for the story to stop being told.

For Australian cricket, the episode returns a familiar question to the surface. The bans have been served, the investigations closed, but the account of who knew what and when remains contested territory. Khawaja’s autobiography has placed that contest back in public view.

                                               

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