Khawaja insists: “I’m not here to go on a witch hunt”

Usman Khawaja insists the information he released about Sandpapergate in his new book was only intended to tell his side of the story.

Khawaja has poured petrol on the scandal this week, writing in his autobiography ‘Sabr’ that it was “all of us” who knew the 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering was happening.

He appeared on the ABC’s 7.30 program with Sarah Ferguson, and was asked if Pat Cummins and the other bowlers were aware of the sandpaper situation.

The former opener did not answer the question directly, but did say he never wanted this to be a witch hunt.

“I am not going to entertain that,” he said.

“I wrote it in my book because it was a safe space for me to write. I took a long time. It took me a long time to first write the chapter, then go over it and try to work out a way that was as balanced as possible.

“I felt like I found a nice balance at the end of it, and I learned from this week when the media article came out that whenever things come out in the media, they get sensationalised.

“This has never been a witch hunt for me. It's only been those three guys who've had to cop this flak for a long time. I'm hoping other people will come up and talk about it, honestly.

“Pat Cummins is a good friend of mine, Mitchell Starc, a lot of these guys, the guys in the team, other players in the team, Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, they're all very good friends of mine.

“I’m not here to go on a witch hunt. All I've ever wanted is for us to take accountability as a team, and I don't think that's a lot to say.”

Khawaja did say he wanted responsibility to be shared by more than the trio of people - Steve Smith, David Warner and Cam Bancroft - who were banned.

“I don't think the ban for the three players was appropriate,” he added.

“I don't believe the whole team would have got a ban if we went in together. I don't think we would have. That's why I wanted collective.

“I think it would have been shared. It's very hard to ban the whole team.”

Khawaja further said the investigation into the incident felt very rushed.

“I don't feel like it was a thorough investigation because I never got investigated and I was sitting next to Cameron Bancroft the whole time,” he said.

“So it's hard for me to say cover up but I will say it felt rushed.”