Cricket-Australia skipper nonplussed over forthcoming book that might add to Sandpapergate fallout

FILE PHOTO: Cricket - 2025 ICC World Test Championship Final - South Africa v Australia - Lord's Cricket Ground, London, Britain - June 13, 2025 Australia's Pat Cummins in action Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers/File Photo

(Removes extraneous word 'the' from penultimate paragraph)

DURBAN, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Australia’s 2018 ball-tampering scandal is back in the spotlight as ⁠the test side return to South Africa for the first time since “Sandpapergate”, but captain ‌Pat Cummins on Thursday dismissed suggestions that Usman Khawaja’s autobiography could trigger further fallout when it is published next month.

Australia’s 33-year-old test skipper was one of the bowlers who played in the March 2018 test at Cape Town where Australia ​were caught using sandpaper to scuff up one side of ⁠the ball in an illegal effort to ⁠produce prodigious swing.

It sparked a major crisis for Cricket Australia, but only captain Steve Smith and ⁠batsmen ‌David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who was caught with the sandpaper in his pocket, were banned for their part in the scandal.

The bowling quartet of Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood ⁠and Nathan Lyon all denied any knowledge of the incident.

All ​four are back in South ‌Africa for the three-test series, the first in South Africa since the scandal, which starts ⁠atKingsmead on Friday.

Cummins ​confirmed he has spoken with Khawaja, who was also in the Australian team at Newlands eight years ago.

“Didn't go back into too much detail. He just basically gave me the heads-up that he's doing a book, ⁠and yeah, as always, no worries. Tell your story. It's ​fine,” Cummins said.

Australian media have reported that Khawaja had urged the team to take collective responsibility at the time of the scandal but the suggestion had been shot down.

Cummins said he did not know ⁠about the contents of the book.

“You need to ask him,” he said. “It’s obviously a long time ago. All the investigations, everything was done back then. Answered every question a million times. So, yeah, it was dealt with then. Now all I can say is, as a group, we moved on, ​very happy with the last eight years, how we’ve been as ⁠a group and evolved.”

South African broadcaster SuperSport, whose cameras caught the offending Australians, has poked some fun ​at the 2018 scandal with a clip on social media that ‌shows Bancroft using the sandpaper on the ball ​and Australia's reaction after being caught red-handed eight years ago.

In the social media post, the broadcaster warned: “Our cameras will be sharp for this 3-match test series.”

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Thank you for your report!

资料照片：板球 - 2025年国际板球理事会世界测试锦标赛决赛 - 南非对阵澳大利亚 - 英国伦敦，罗德板球场 - 2025年6月13日 澳大利亚球员帕特·康明斯比赛瞬间 图片来源：路透社/安德鲁·博耶斯/资料照片

（删除倒数第二段中多余的词“the”）

德班，10 月 8 日（路透社）——随着澳大利亚板球队自“砂纸门”事件以来首次重返南非，2018 年的“砂纸门”丑闻再次成为人们关注的焦点。但队长帕特·康明斯周四驳斥了乌斯曼·卡瓦贾的自传下个月出版后可能会引发进一步后果的说法。

澳大利亚33岁的测试赛队长是2018年3月在开普敦举行的测试赛中上场的投球手之一，当时澳大利亚队被发现使用砂纸摩擦球的一侧，以非法手段产生巨大的摆动。

这起事件引发了澳大利亚板球协会的一场重大危机，但只有队长史蒂夫·史密斯和击球手大卫·沃纳以及卡梅伦·班克罗夫特（他被发现口袋里藏有砂纸）因参与这起丑闻而被禁赛。

保龄球四人组卡明斯、米切尔·斯塔克、乔什·哈泽尔伍德和内森·里昂均否认对此事知情。

这四位球员都回到了南非，参加三场测试赛系列赛。这是丑闻发生以来，他们首次在南非进行测试赛，比赛将于周五在金斯米德球场开始。

卡明斯证实他已经和卡瓦贾谈过话，卡瓦贾八年前也曾是新地体育场澳大利亚队的一员。

“他没细说。他只是简单地告诉我他要写本书，然后，嗯，像往常一样，别担心。讲你的故事吧，没问题的。”卡明斯说道。

澳大利亚媒体报道称，丑闻发生时，卡瓦贾曾敦促球队承担集体责任，但这一建议遭到了否决。

卡明斯表示他不知道这本书的内容。

“你应该去问他，”他说。“这显然是很久以前的事了。所有的调查，所有的事情都已经完成了。每个问题都回答过无数遍了。所以，是的，这件事当时已经处理好了。现在我只能说，作为一个团队，我们已经向前迈进了，对过去八年我们作为一个团队的成长和发展都非常满意。”

南非广播公司 SuperSport 的摄像机拍下了澳大利亚人的违规行为，并在社交媒体上发布了一段视频，以此调侃 2018 年的丑闻。视频显示，班克罗夫特用砂纸摩擦球，以及八年前澳大利亚人被当场抓获后的反应。

该电视台在社交媒体帖子中警告说：“我们将用镜头清晰地记录这三场测试赛。”

（普里塔·萨卡尔编辑）

感谢您的报告！