Hussain calls ‘Sandpapergate’ affair a ‘complete mess’

Sky Sports’ Nasser Hussain has called the Australia ‘Sandpapergate’ affair and its subsequent explosive fallout a “complete mess”.

The 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, in which Australia’s Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera trying to use sandpaper on the ball in order to make it swing, has been catapulted back into the spotlight following the release of Usman Khawaja’s book.

Former Baggy Greens batter Khawaja, who played in that infamous Cape Town Test, claims the entire team knew about the scheme and not just those banned, in Bancroft, then-captain Steve Smith and David Warner, who was deemed the architect.

Khawaja also said he was not quizzed at the time by Cricket Australia despite sitting next to Bancroft in the Newlands dressing room and that he urged the team to come clean and take collective responsibility before being talked out of it by Smith.

Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, former England captain Hussain said: “I think it’s a complete mess.

“Let’s be honest, for the history of the game, people have been trying to work out what to do with cricket balls to make it swing more, whether it be mints, sweets, throwing the ball to the ground on the bounce, Vaseline, dirt in pocket, whatever it might be.

“[But] how a side thought it was okay to take sandpaper out, how no one before that in a meeting went, ‘I don’t think this is okay, I don’t think we’re doing the right thing’, how they thought they were going to get away with it with all the cameras around [I don’t know].

“Then to lie about it after and for Cricket Australia not to speak to every player, not to speak to Khawaja who was sitting next to Bancroft. It just feels like a right mess.

“The team, the baggy green, the mateship and all that stuff – that was what playing Australia was like, so for an Australian team to say, ‘no, it’s just those three’ when it was never going to be just those three [is surprising].”

‘Worst of both worlds from Cricket Australia’

Hussain’s fellow analyst, Michael Atherton, is currently in Australia ahead of England’s white-ball tour of the country, which begins with the first ODI in Perth on Friday (3.30am UK time).

Atherton will attend what he anticipates being a “circus” of a press conference on Thursday as Australia white-ball captain Mitchell Marsh – the only player to have figured in the Newlands Test in 2018 in the hosts’ squad to tackle England – fronts up.

Usual ODI skipper Pat Cummins has been rested, along with Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, all three of whom were involved in the sandpaper Test and released a joint statement back in 2021, with spinner Nathan Lyon, denying prior knowledge of the plot.

Sky Sports pundit Atherton was critical of Cricket Australia’s handling of the situation eight years ago, saying it was always “going to come back to haunt them”.

Smith and Warrner were banned for a year after ‘Sandpapergate’ with Bancroft suspended for nine months.

Atherton, who does not see a need for a new investigation to be opened following Khawaja’s claims, said: “It was almost like the sandpaper was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“It was on the back of the team having become, and Khawaja talks about it in his book, slightly out of control, a bit unlikable and with a kind of win-at-all costs mentality.

“Then it was the worst of both worlds.

“They handed down unbelievably heavy sanctions – I thought hard-to-justify sanctions – and left three players to take the rap. But it left questions unanswered, left the door open for it to come back to haunt them, which it is doing now.

“It was eight years ago and there will be a weariness around the story eventually, because it’s all over every newspaper, podcast, whatever.

“But I do think the particular point about not having people’s backs is the thing causing the most disquiet [in the Australia public] and will rumble on for a while yet.”

Atherton: Cracks in the Australia team

Australia have also toiled on the field, losing 2-1 in South Africa in their first Test series in the country since the ball-tampering scandal, with the out-of-form Marnus Labuschagne now dropped for the impending home clashes with New Zealand.

Amid a relentless Test calendar that then features a five-match assignment in India, the day-night 150th anniversary Test against England in Melbourne in March, and an away Ashes series in June and July, Atherton feels the Baggy Greens are in a tough spot.

He added: “The schedule is brutal and unforgiving and already there’s cracks in that team.

“It doesn’t feel as though the team is robust enough to get through this period.

“This [the ball-tampering claims] is adding a little bit more fuel to the fire.”

Schedule for England’s tour of Australia

ODIs 3.30am UK time, with T20s 8.15am UK time

• First ODI: Friday, November 13 (Perth)
• Second ODI: Sunday November 15 (Adelaide)
• Third ODI: Wednesday November 18 (Hobart)
• First T20I: Saturday November 21 (Melbourne)
• Second T20I: Tuesday November 24 (Carrara)
• Third T20I: Friday November 27 (Brisbane)
• Fourth T20I: Sunday November 29 (Sydney)
• Fifth T20I: Wednesday December 2 (Canberra)