Hick says Khawaja Sandpapergate claims 'absolutely false'

INTERNATIONAL BUREAU —Australia's former batting coach Graeme Hick called Usman Khawaja's Sandpapergate claims "absolutely false" as the fallout from the 2018 ball-tampering scandal rumbled on Thursday. Khawaja re-ignited the explosive issue by alleging in his autobiography this week that the whole team knew about the plot to rough up the ball to make it swing during the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town eight years ago.

He also claimed the tactic was used in the second Test at Port Elizabeth. A Cricket Australia probe concluded only David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were in the know, with all three sent home in disgrace and subsequently banned. Warner has backed Khawaja's stance, but Darren Lehmann, who was head coach at the time, denied last weekend any knowledge.

England's Hick, who was Australia's batting coach during the South Africa tour, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the now-retired Khawaja was wrong. "Khawaja puts it simply: 'It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.' To me what Khawaja is implying here is absolutely false," he said.

"In regard to any discussions around the ball-tampering in Port Elizabeth or Cape Town that took place, I will say in true honesty that I did not hear or know anything." Pat Cummins and fellow bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all denied publicly in 2021 that they knew about the plan.

Starc reiterated this on Wednesday, telling reporters: "I guess I won't speak on behalf of the bowlers, but, where I stand, my opinion hasn't changed, my recollection hasn't changed from what we said in 2021. "As far as our statement said, we weren't aware of things being taken on the field, that's where I'll leave it." Cricket Australia has ruled out re-opening their investigation.

Cummins, now Australian captain, has yet to respond but CA chairman David Boon assured him his job is safe regardless. "We absolutely support Pat," Boon told The Australian newspaper on Thursday. "He's been an exemplary captain, he's led the team with integrity and very successfully over the period of time that he's been captain, so there's no question of our confidence in him continuing on in that fact." Boon said Australia needed to look forward, not back.

"I respect (Usman's) point of view and his recollections of what occurred, and they're his, but we don't want to get into a 'he said, she said' argument," he said. "There are going to be supporters, there's going to be other guys that don't recollect the same thing, so I don't see a purpose."