It now falls to the remaining Australian players involved, the coaching staff and Cricket Australia to decide how to proceed.
On Tuesday, Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said, with visible composure, that he saw “no compelling reason” to reopen the investigation into the ball-tampering saga.
What evidence could compel Greenberg to act? Even if Khawaja has not directly pointed the finger at anyone else in the dressing room that day, surely Cricket Australia should be examining the claims now causing so much reputational damage, especially as Khawaja and Warner have questioned the rigor of the original investigation.
The Cape Town files have never been made public. In 2021, David Saker, who was an Australia assistant coach at the time, called for them to be released. Now, Saker is not named, but he is among the staff Khawaja has implicated in the book by claiming that a member of the backroom team encouraged Bancroft. That allegation alone, critics say, warrants further scrutiny by Cricket Australia.
Of the players in the Australia XI at that Saturday at Newlands, three were punished; now Khawaja has accepted his share of responsibility, making four.
Tim Paine inherited the captaincy, a reign that ended in his own scandal. Mitchell Marsh remains an active player and is about to skipper Australia in the limited-overs series against England. Marsh will speak on Thursday. His brother Shaun was also in the team in Cape Town. That makes seven.
Then there are the four bowlers, possibly the greatest four-man attack ever assembled.
Starc, with more Test wickets than any other left-arm bowler in history. Lyon, the most successful orthodox finger-spinner in Test cricket. Josh Hazlewood, the reincarnation of Glenn McGrath. Pat Cummins, the clean-cut current Australia captain, an Ashes and World Cup-winning leader.
That they are still Australia’s first-choice bowling unit is testament to their talent, longevity and desire. They remain as a quartet, hunting prizes that have previously eluded them over the coming year – an away Test series win in India and winning the Ashes in England.
As it stands, they are adhering to a joint statement made in 2021 that they “did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field”.
The plausibility of elite bowlers not knowing a ball had been tampered with is up for debate. The quartet point to the fact that the on-field umpires on the day did not see any reason to change the ball at the time. In contrast, Khawaja said the effects of sandpaper could leave swirls on the leather.
For Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon, champion bowlers, the insinuation hangs over them. It is hard to prove a negative. Perhaps the off-ramp is for the foursome to themselves call for a reopening of the investigation? It could clear their names.
As it stands, Australian cricket is stuck in a sandpaper limbo, a halfway house full of historical scandal, innuendo and unanswered questions. According to former captain Michael Clarke, further inaction would leave supporters unable to “trust what’s real”.
Perhaps there is another scenario: the unpalatable prospect that those at the top have no desire to open the door for fear of what might lie behind it. It is worth remembering that the past two Australia captains have lost the job in disgrace: Smith for sandpaper and Paine for sexting.
Is that worse than the status quo? Sandpaper is the stench Australian cricket cannot shake.
