Craddock: Cummins must address Usman claims

Usman Khawaja has sent shockwaves around the cricket world with his claims the entire Australian side was aware of Sandpapergate as it played out in 2018, with the revelations poised to dismantle the entire squad.

Just days after Australia returned to Cape Town for the first time since the ball tampering scandal, Khawaja released his memoir which shares details which fly directly in contradiction to what the bowlers said in 2021.

Veteran journalist Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock believes amid all the speculation, captain Pat Cummins needs to come out and address Khawaja’s claims.

He was asked by Adam White if there are still questions that need answering from Cummins and the bowlers who are still playing for Australia today.

“I think it’s a totally fair question to them, because these are fresh allegations,” Craddock said on SEN Mornings.

“You must say that Pat Cummins is a decent bloke, he is a decent captain, as are good fellows Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

“But Pat was a major beneficiary of the demise of Steven Smith as captain because of the ball tampering. They went to Tim Paine and then got to Pat.

“One of the reasons Pat got to that position because he was a cleanskin, allegedly with no knowledge of Sandpapergate. That’s a key plank there.

“Of course it’s a fair question. I don’t think Australia cricket can truly move on until Pat does answer that question.

“When a bloke releases a book saying ‘everyone knew’, and you released a statement five years ago saying we didn’t know, then of course it deserves to be reinvestigated.”

We look at how the cricket world has reacted to Khawaja’s claims:

MICHAEL VAUGHAN:

“What I can’t understand is how Australia thought they would put this to bed. It has been an open secret in cricket circles. How the hell don’t you know something like that in a team environment?

“You can’t tell me the Australian team did not communicate that or the bowlers were totally unaware of what was being done to the ball they were using.

“The problem is that we are in an era where players are hellbent on protecting their own brands. They will go to any lengths to keep their reputations and in this situation three people were thrown under the bus, maybe under pressure from advisers. It is such a short-term choice.

“I don’t believe there should be new bans dished out. How can you go back eight years and start slapping suspensions on people when the governing body has already passed judgment and had the choice at the time to investigate more than just the incident in Cape Town? Cricket Australia is as culpable as any of the players involved.”

NICK HOULT

The UK Telegraph’s chief cricket writer Nick Hoult has called for Pat Cummins to front up and “explain all”.

"For someone who likes to share opinions publicly, the one debate he strives to steer clear of is what happened in Cape Town in February 2018. That will be much harder now. What did he know? Was he aware of the sandpaper plot that Usman Khawaja says was widely discussed in the dressing room? Did he know it happened in Port Elizabeth, before it was publicly exposed in the next Test? Was he one of the two players that Khawaja says refused the plan to take collective blame? Is this upstanding cricketing poster boy really telling us he knew nothing was going on?"

OLIVER HOLT

Chief Sports writer at the Daily Mail, Oliver Holt, has called for the entire Australian team to answer Khawaja’s claims as more shame is heaped on the squad.

“The significance of Khawaja’s revelations lies primarily in his allegations that Australia had experimented with the same ball-tampering tactics at the previous Test in Port Elizabeth but also in the fact that the majority of the team dodged responsibility for the cheating even though Khawaja says they were all complicit.

“That second revelation strikes at the heart of the ethos of Australian cricket because it destroys the idea of ‘mateship’ within the ranks of the side.

“If what Khawaja says is true, then surely it will be incumbent on Cricket Australia to impose bans on the rest of the players in that Cape Town Test. Warner and Smith were both suspended from Test cricket for a year. The same sanction, presumably, may now be visited on the rest of the side.

“It is a nice idea but the reality is that Australian cricket has been plunged into a new world of pain.”