Australia captain Pat Cummins has rejected Usman Khawaja's claim that race played a role in him missing out on the national team's captaincy following the 2018 Sandpapergate scandal.
During a press conference on Friday, Cummins addressed several claims made by the former Australia opener in his autobiography, Sabr. While he agreed with some of the points raised in the book, he strongly disagreed with Khawaja's suggestion that the colour of a player's skin influenced Australia's captaincy decisions.
"I was a natural selection for interim captain, but was overlooked," said Khawaja, who was Australia's first Pakistan-born national player who was leading the Queensland side in domestic cricket at the time.
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Khawaja, who retired from international cricket, wrote that he was disappointed when he was overlooked for the captaincy after then-skipper Steve Smith was sent home following the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Tim Paine was appointed captain instead and later handed over the role to Cummins in 2021.
In his book, Khawaja suggested that his involvement in earlier pay disputes with Cricket Australia and his heritage may have worked against him when the team was deciding on its next captain.
"The second -- and, I believe, more important -- reason was that they weren't ready for a brown Australian cricket captain, even as an interim."
However, Cummins disagreed with that assessment and dismissed the suggestion that race influenced the decision.
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"I think of the things I've read, that's the most serious," Cummins said at a press conference to address the ball-tampering allegations reignited by Khawaja. "To think that the job I hold is quarantined from people based on their skin colour, it's a pretty big statement. If you are going to say that I think you have to have evidence. And I just don't think that's the case.
"Again, I agree with Usman on a lot of things but I disagree with him saying that if you're Australian captain you have to be of a certain skin colour, I have to disagree with that statement."
Khawaja, who moved to Australia as a child, has spoken openly about experiencing racism from a young age. His comments in Sabr have once again brought questions about race, representation and leadership in Australian cricket into focus.
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