Exclusive: Greenberg addresses Khawaja's sandpaper revelations

Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg has spoken for the first time since the release of Usman Khawaja’s autobiography, which detailed the events of Sandpapergate during the infamous 2018 Cape Town Test.

Khawaja’s autobiography ‘Sabr’, which officially goes on sale today, gave his account, providing details that all members of the team knew about the plan to use sandpaper on the ball to allow it to reverse-swing.

Following extracts of the book being released in the lead-up to its release, David Warner has unequivocally backed Khawaja’s version of events

This contradicts the public statements by Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, made jointly denying their knowledge of its use.

Speaking exclusively on SEN Mornings with Adam White, the former NRL CEO admitted he had not read the book yet but appreciated receiving a heads-up from the former Test opener about the book.

“I haven't read the book yet,” he said.

“Clearly it is out, but I'll hopefully get an opportunity to do it, but Usman was good enough to let me know some months ago that he would be releasing a book, and I really appreciated that call.”

But whilst Greenberg has plenty of respect for what Khawaja has done, he does not believe there should be another investigation into the events at Newlands, having been comfortable with the outcome.

“First and foremost, I have huge respect for Usman to give his version of events,” Greenberg continued.

“I read his comments over the weekend in the media, exactly the same time as the public and I'll obviously get to read his book at some point.

“But there are specific details in his book that contradict the versions that have been provided by others. And I want to be really careful to consider what Usman's actually said, and not respond to the headlines or the subsequent commentary that gets created.

“It's important to attribute his words and not the headlines. It's important to know that back at that time, players were urged to come forward, and they had the opportunity to do so over these past eight years, and that remains the case.

“So I think that's really important. But 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.

“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 also noted that regardless of whatever else came out, there would be a lack of consensus about what actually took place.

"You end up at the same intersection where one person's version of events contradict the others, and I'm not sure what outcome people are searching for," he added.

"I think what people want is a single outcome that everyone is aligned up on, but I don't think that's possible on this occasion because we have such conflicting views from the same moment in time."