Nearly seven years after the explosive 2018 South Africa-Australia Test series ball-tampering scandal widely dubbed “Sandpapergate”, the controversy has re-emerged in public discourse following recently retired Australian batter Usman Khawaja’s candid new autobiography and accompanying media appearances. Speculation swirled in local Australian media in recent days that Khawaja’s planned nationwide promotional tour for the memoir had been fully cancelled, after he made notable remarks during a sit-down interview with public broadcaster ABC that avoided naming specific teammates who were aware of the 2018 tampering plot, while pushing for collective team accountability rather than targeting individuals. Addressing the rumours directly via a statement shared with ABC, Khawaja’s publisher Penguin emphatically refuted claims of a full tour cancellation, noting only that minor schedule tweaks had been implemented for upcoming events, with all core promotional activities set to move forward as planned. During his widely discussed ABC interview, Khawaja stressed that he had no intention of leading a divisive “witch hunt” against former teammates, and that his choice to redact specific names from early drafts of his 22-page section covering the Sandpapergate incident was deliberate. “I am simply sharing my version of the truth, not calling for anyone to be singled out,” Khawaja explained. “My core goal has always been to push for the entire 2018 squad to take shared accountability, rather than letting only three players carry the full weight of public backlash indefinitely.” The original 2018 Cricket Australia investigation resulted in multi-year bans for then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner, and batter Cameron Bancroft, who was caught on camera tucking a piece of sandpaper into his trousers during the controversial Cape Town Test. The official probe at the time concluded that the rest of Australia’s bowling unit, including long-serving core players Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, and Mitchell Starc, had no prior knowledge of the tampering scheme, a position the four players reaffirmed in a joint 2021 statement noting they had no idea a foreign abrasive substance had been brought onto the field. When directly pressed in the ABC interview whether current Australian Test captain Pat Cummins had been aware of the plan, Khawaja declined to confirm or deny the claim, noting he remained close friends with all members of the 2018 squad and had no desire to inflame existing tensions. Former vice-captain David Warner has since publicly stated that all of Khawaja’s claims laid out in the new book are “100% accurate”, adding that long-held untruths about the scandal would eventually come fully to light. As the international cricket community processes the renewed conversation around the historic scandal, England star batter Joe Root, speaking ahead of his side’s upcoming one-day international fixture against Australia, noted he would not speculate on the unconfirmed details of the 2018 incident, and pushed back on suggestions that ball-tampering was widespread across the global men’s game during that era. Khawaja, who stepped away from international cricket in early 2025, added that he hoped his public account would encourage other former teammates to share their own honest recollections of the events, though he would not pressure anyone to speak publicly against their will.