By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: Wasim Akram has cast doubt on Pat Cummins’s insistence that he knew nothing about sandpaper being used to tamper with the ball in 2018, saying any bowler would recognise the difference between natural wear and deliberate damage.
The Pakistan fast-bowling great, widely regarded as one of the finest exponents of reverse swing, made the remarks in a video posted on social media from Melbourne on Saturday. It came a day after the Australia captain spent 68 minutes at a press conference in Sydney dismissing his former team-mate Usman Khawaja’s claims about the Cape Town scandal.
“As a bowler, I’ll have a look at the ball and know straight away something is not right,” Wasim said.
“He said he didn’t know (about the use of sandpaper). As a bowler, when the cricket ball comes into my hand, whether it’s the fifth over, the tenth over or the fiftieth over, you look after the ball, you shine one side of the ball. But the sandpaper scratch is totally different than the one-bounce scratch.”
Wasim said the difference could easily be demonstrated. Anyone, he suggested, could take a semi-new ball, rub sandpaper against it and see the marks it leaves.
He described Cummins as “a very close friend” and insisted he was not taking sides in a controversy that has resurfaced after revelations in Khawaja’s autobiography, ‘Sabr’.
Khawaja, the former Australia opener who played 88 Tests, alleges that knowledge of the plan to tamper with the ball was widespread in the Australian dressing room during the 2018 tour of South Africa, including among the bowling group. He has also claimed that sandpaper was used in the previous Test at Port Elizabeth. He has questioned why Cricket Australia never approached him during its investigation, although he was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft in the Cape Town Test.
Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper on the ball during the third Test at Newlands. Steve Smith, then captain, and David Warner, his vice-captain, were suspended along with Bancroft, Smith and Warner for 12 months and Bancroft for nine. Cricket Australia also commissioned a wider review of the team’s culture. Its investigation concluded that those three were the only players with prior knowledge of the plot.
Cummins rejected Khawaja’s account on Friday, describing it as “100 percent wrong” and “complete and utter nonsense”. The Australia captain said he had no knowledge of sandpaper being taken onto the field and denied being an architect of the scheme. He said he was genuinely shocked to learn Khawaja had warned Bancroft to be careful while using it. Cummins called Khawaja a friend but said friends should not be casual with each other’s lives and reputations.
Mitchell Starc, another member of the 2018 attack, has said his recollection of events has not changed. Warner has taken Khawaja’s side, backing his claims and calling the Cricket Australia investigation “rushed and botched”.
Wasim said the affair had raised wider questions about Australia’s reputation.
“Australians are famous for their straightforwardness, their hardness on the field and off the field, and most importantly honesty. I think that’s why the whole nation has been under stress a bit,” he said.
“I hope things get sorted out, but this is my take.”
Cricket Australia has refused to reopen its investigation. Its chief executive, Todd Greenberg, said on Tuesday there was “no compelling reason” to do so. He also said he believed the players held very different views from Khawaja’s version of events.
More than eight years after Newlands, the dispute over what the Australian squad knew, and when, remains unresolved.
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