Cummins Labeling Usman Khawaja’s Sandpapergate Allegations As “Utter Nonsense”
Pat Cummins says Usman Khawaja’s claim ‘complete and utter nonsense’
He was genuinely shocked this week regarding the allegations made by Usman Khawaja in his book.
double quotation markWhen he says we all knew, if [by] that he means we knew sandpaper was going out on the field, he’s 100% wrong. I said that consistently for the last eight years. I did not know that was happening …
He says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball-tamper with sandpaper. That’s complete and utter nonsense.
Cummins further stated that Khawaja’s book had been casual about his life and the lives of many others, and he expressed his disappointment in Australian cricket.
Cummins hopes that exhaustively addressing all questions today will draw a line under the sandpaper scandal issue. However, he acknowledges this approach might be somewhat naive.
Cummins turns attention to today’s ODI against England
Because an hour-long press conference about a Test series eight years ago is barely enough cricket …
The Guardian will be live blogging the one-day international between Australia and England in Perth, starting at 2.30pm AEST.
Cummins was prepared to answer questions until none remained, and indeed spoke for more than an hour on the morning of the conference.
“I don’t want to talk about this again after today, so even if it takes all day – I’ve got to bowl at some stage – but I’ll answer all of them,” Cummins said.
Cummins aims to close the chapter on the incident by addressing every point, though he admits the approach may be over-optimistic.
Cummins is familiar with the strain of fast bowling on young backs. He played his first Test match at 18 in 2011 (taking six wickets in the second dig, and winning player of the match).
But his second Test was more than five years later – a series of back stress fractures and a heel injury keeping him from red ball cricket for nearly half a decade.
Cummins said he has met with Beardman several times, “but unfortunately, it’s normally when he’s been injured”.
“The start of his career is somewhat similar to how mine has been at times.”
Cummins rules out taking any legal action
Cummins won’t be taking any legal action. He says:
double quotation markI mean, I did get advised this week that some of the things that have [been] said are probably defamatory. I won’t be doing that. You got to move on. It’s been eight years.
We’re moving on, we are moving on. You got to draw the line at some point. I won’t be doing that.
‘Hopefully … we can move on to more fun topics like actual cricket’
Cummins is done. He says he hopes the de facto question time will put an end to the episode:
double quotation markHopefully today we put a line through it and we can move on to much more fun topics, like actual cricket starting this afternoon.
Cummins: bans for Smith, Warner and Bancroft were ‘way over the top’
Another issue addressed in Cummins’s press conference – he took questions for more than an hour – was the punishment handed down to the three players Cricket Australia’s investigation found were responsible for bringing sandpaper onto the field: Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
Cummins said he believed the punishments handed down in the wake of the scandal were “way over the top”. Smith and Warner were handed one-year bans, Bancroft (while the player who carried the sandpaper on to the field, he was the most junior of the three) received a nine-month ban.
Cummins said the sandpaper scandal happened “in the middle of a chaotic series”.
“There was a lot of lawlessness about what was going on in that series … it was just a crazy series and I’m very glad we haven’t seen a series like that since.”
“And it [ball tampering] was also quite prevalent. We have heard stories of other teams doing it.”
“I think the whole scale got a little bit lost (in the punishments given to those three players).
“It’s my personal opinion but I think their bans were way over the top.”
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Updated at 19.44 EST
Cummins: sandpaper ‘very normal around training’
Cummins spoke about sandpaper itself, saying it is common for cricketers to carry it in their kitbags.
double quotation markIt’s actually, again, quite a normal thing. We carry sandpaper, normally for the batters; they rough up their bats. But we actually use it for balls as well around training. You face a lot of reverse swing, so the batters want to face it and practise it in the net.
We’ve scratched balls on concrete, I’ve seen someone use a Stanley knife, I’ve seen sandpaper used. So, all the methods are very normal around training, so again I think it comes to [the claim that] ‘there must have been a grand plan’ because for the non-cricket, maybe for the non-international, player it sounds absurd, and it is absurd to take sandpaper on the field, but trying to give a bit more context – it is a part of the change room.
We may have been doing it around training, but there is a leap to then think it’s OK to take it on field, but maybe not perhaps as big a leap as some people may think.
Recapping some elements of Pat Cummins’ marathon press conference
Cummins said the most serious allegation raised by Usman Khawaja in Sabr was not the sandpaper incident at Newlands in 2018, but his allegation that he (Khawaja) was overlooked as the Australian test captain – in the wake of the sandpaper crisis – because he was not white.
Khawaja wrote it was a “kick in the guts” that Tim Paine, the wicketkeeper only recently returned to the Test team, was appointed interim captain after Smith was sent home from Cape Town.
Khawaja wrote:
double quotation markI was a natural selection for interim captain, but was overlooked. I knew why. One reason was that I’d been a main protagonist during those pay disputes
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