Former Australia opener David Warner has reacted strongly after ex-Australia batting coach Graeme Hick dismissed Usman Khawaja's explosive claims about the 2018 Sandpapergate scandal.
In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Hick said Khawaja's suggestion that the entire Australian team knew about the use of an illegal foreign object on the ball was false.
"To me what Khawaja is implying here is absolutely false. 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!!
"My first knowledge of all this was, like many, when it appeared on the big screen in Cape Town as I was sat on the outside balcony at the time," he added.
The controversy resurfaced after Khawaja made a series of revelations about the infamous Cape Town Test in his upcoming memoir, Sabr.
Three days before the book's release, Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian team was aware of the plan to use sandpaper on the ball during the 2018 Test. He also alleged that the object had been used during the previous Test match.
"I have seen the various statements around the coaches and I'm very disappointed with the broad nature of them,” Hick, who was Australia's batting coach from 2016-2020, added. “Khawaja puts it simply: ‘It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us'."
In response to an X post on the interview, Warner wrote: "Let's get the facts straight. Graeme Hick was only appointed because Cricket Australia was unwilling to pay Michael Di Venuto what he deserved. As players, we valued Michael so highly that we even offered to contribute from our own salaries to retain him. These discussions were taking place during the New Zealand tour. That alone speaks volumes about how highly we regarded him and how determined we were to keep him involved. Adds to why Graeme has spoken!!"
Until now, the public narrative surrounding the scandal had largely centred on then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. Bancroft was the player who applied the object to the ball during the Cape Town Test.
The scandal led to major sanctions from Cricket Australia. Smith and Warner were handed one-year bans from international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft received a nine-month ban.
Smith was also barred from captaining Australia for two years. Warner, meanwhile, was handed a lifetime leadership ban in international and Australian domestic cricket. The ban was overturned in 2024.
"To me what Khawaja is implying here is absolutely false. 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!!
"My first knowledge of all this was, like many, when it appeared on the big screen in Cape Town as I was sat on the outside balcony at the time," he added.
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