Cricket Australia boss rules out fresh inquiry into ‘Sandpapergate’

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg has ruled out a fresh inquiry into the sandpaper scandal of 2018, despite the explosive claims of Usman Khawaja and David Warner.

The eight-year-old ball tampering saga is firmly back on the agenda thanks to Khawaja’s new autobiography, in which he claims the team had engaged in the illegal practice before the Cape Town Test where Cameron Bancroft was caught red handed, and that the entire Australia squad were aware of the plot.

At the time captain Steve Smith and deputy David Warner were handed 12-month bans, with Bancroft handed a nine-month suspension due to his rookie status. The original probe found nobody else culpable, a position which has always attracted scepticism and seems increasingly implausible given Khawaja’s recollections and Warner’s subsequent backing.

Pressure is mounting on Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – the trio of star seamers who were the prime beneficiaries of the sandpaper tactic and remain the fulcrum of the Australia attack – to speak out.

In 2021 they, alongside spinner Nathan Lyon, released a carefully worded statement denying any knowledge of the specific ball-tampering which was exposed at Newlands but their account has now been challenged by senior players from the same dressing room.

Yet Greenberg has come out to quash calls for CA to revisit the matter.

“We don’t see any compelling reason to open the investigation or revisit this again. I don’t think there’s anything that can be gained from that,” Greenberg told SEN radio station.

“We have said we’re comfortable with the outcome of the investigation based on the information we’ve received. That includes what we’ve seen from Usman, and our position hasn’t changed on that.

“There’s absolutely no benefit in going back, that’s the clear position of the CA board. I think it’s fine, we’ve got to look ahead, and the matter was dealt with under a previous leadership back in 2018.

“Trying to second-guess decisions from a previous time or making an assessment through the prism of hindsight is not something we want to do.”

He added: “When you cut to the core of the challenge that we face here, Usman’s version of events is inconsistent with what others have had to say.

“I can assure you there are lots of other players who have a very, very different version of events. And they have made that very public from the very start of 2018, they have been very consistent in their position right through until today.

“From my conversations with many over the weekend, I don’t think that will change either.”

Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood have all been rested from this month’s white-ball series against England but stand-in one-day captain Mitch Marsh was part of the 2018 series and will surely be forced to address the matter in the coming days.