'It was all of us' - Khawaja exposes sandpaper details from 2018

But in an interview with the Nine papers on Saturday, three days out from the book's release, Khawaja has revealed what will be in it regarding the controversial "Sandpapergate" incident, stating that the entire team knew about the use of sandpaper on the ball in Cape Town and that it had been used in the previous Test as well.

Up until now, the long-held public narrative from both CA and the players and staff members involved in the incident was that only Steven Smith, David Warner and Bancroft were responsible for it. Smith and Warner were banned for a year from playing international and domestic cricket while Bancroft was banned for nine months. Warner, who was Test vice-captain at the time, was handed an additional penalty of being banned from all leadership positions in international and Australian domestic cricket for life. That ban was later overturned in 2024 which allowed him to captain Sydney Thunder in the BBL.

In 2021, Bancroft gave an interview to the Guardian where he stated under questioning that it was "self-explanatory" that the bowlers had awareness that the ball was being tampered with in Cape Town. In response to that interview Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon released a joint statement denying any knowledge of ball tampering saying, "we did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands".

Khawaja said he did not want to be the one revealing the truth but felt an obligation to do so.

"Maybe I thought Davey would have exposed it, or someone else would have talked about it more. I just didn't think it was going to come down to this. But the longer it's gone on for, and right from the very start, I've been on the train of collectively taking it.

"Even in the change rooms when I was talking to them after the game. I said, 'Take this as a team'. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we have to take it as a team, and so I was always of that stance.

"Obviously, it didn't work that way, and those three guys got crucified.

"I've seen Davey over the last eight years just get nailed bad over and over again, and it's taken a big man not to say anything and just to stay quiet.

"And he's just copped it and he's copped it and he's copped it.

"And then 'Bangers' [Bancroft] in the same note, particularly, he played a little bit of Test cricket after that, but then never came back in, even though he's been scoring a lot of runs. He's been a terrific cricketer for a long time, but I know it's something that hangs over his head.

"Even Steve Smith. Steve's lucky, the greatest batsman of my generation. He came back from that, and he's come back as good as he ever was in that first Ashes series, and it's kind of been forgotten for him in some respects. But I know he has never ever forgotten that year and how it all panned out.

"But I'm not doing this for any other reason than I think it's the right thing to do. I've always felt like there's more to life than just cricket, and these guys, in some respect, deserve that justice. And it just doesn't feel like anyone's going to give it to them. None of those three want to be the first to say anything. And rightly so, it will just be hearsay and 'their word' if they do. They needed someone else to say something."

"I was sitting next to Cam Bancroft that whole Test match, and I didn't get interviewed," Khawaja said. "I thoroughly feel that I didn't get interviewed because of that, because they knew that I wanted to take it as a team, because they knew I was ready to tell the truth if I was interviewed.

"And I was waiting for my phone to ring. It just never rang, and then the penalties were given, and I couldn't believe it."

CA released a statement following Khawaja's interview with Nine saying it was comfortable with the integrity process of the entire incident.

"There has been a great deal of speculation in the eight years since the 2018 Cape Town Test, including extensive media coverage throughout last month's series in South Africa," the CA statement said.

"During this time there has been the ongoing opportunity to present any relevant information, and this remains the case.

"All relevant information presented to CA to date has been properly considered and we remain comfortable with the findings of our integrity process."

Khawaja also claims the South Africa team were "far better" at working on the ball than Australia and that his team were "trying to keep up with them". He said he has details of what they were doing in the book. Then South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis has stated on a number of occasions that his team were also trying to get the ball to reverse via unconventional methods and he had previously been sanctioned twice for ball tampering, including for using mints in a Test match against Australia.

"They were so good, and I discuss in a little bit of detail about what I'd heard from one of their players and what they were doing," Khawaja said.