Former Australia leg-spinner Stuart MacGill has admitted to using sandpaper to tamper with the ball during his playing days, adding a fresh twist to the controversy surrounding the infamous Sandpapergate scandal.
MacGill, who was widely regarded as the second best leg spinner after the late Shane Warne, made the revelation after former Australia batter Usman Khawaja reignited the debate through his autobiography, Sabr.
MacGill's admission comes eight years after the 2018 ball-tampering scandal involving Australia during the Test series against South Africa.
Khawaja's recent claims have once again brought the incident into focus, with MacGill's confession raising further questions about Cricket Australia's findings at the time.
Stuart MacGill Reveals How He Used Sandpaper
Speaking on a FanaticsTV YouTube show alongside his former Sydney Sixers teammates Steve O'Keefe and Moises Henriques, MacGill acknowledged that he had tampered with the ball using sandpaper during his career.
"I'd cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to my thumb," he said. "It was not a part of a massive 'global cheating scam'; I was just really curious to see what would happen and if it would work. And oh, it works (laughs)," said MacGill.
However, he argued that the practice took place at a time when it was not viewed as a "global cheating scam", unlike the controversy that erupted during Australia's 2018 tour of South Africa.
MacGill also explained how he would attach a piece of sandpaper to his thumb and use it to scratch the ball before throwing the sandpaper away in a gutter.
"What they would do is the umpires as you're walking out on the ground, they used to put the ball sort of about 20 metres over the boundary and leave it there and you'd run out on the field, pick it up and go on the field. I would tape a little bit of a square of sandpaper on my thumb, pick the ball up just after tea, scratch the living daylights out of it, pull the sandpaper off, chuck it in the gutter before a ball had even been bowled. So nobody even knew that I'd done it, apart from all the scratches on the ball," he added.
How Stuart MacGill's Admission Reopens Sandpapergate Debate
MacGill's comments come shortly after Khawaja made fresh revelations about Australia's ball-tampering scandal in his memoir Sabr. Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian team knew about the use of sandpaper during the 2018 Test series against South Africa.
However, Cricket Australia has maintained that the wider team was not aware of the plan to use sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball during the third Test in Cape Town.
MacGill's admission has added another dimension to the debate, particularly as questions continue to be raised about what players knew and how ball-tampering was viewed within the game.
Darren Lehmann, Mitchell Starc Denied Knowledge Of Scandal
Darren Lehmann, who was Australia's head coach during the 2018 South Africa tour, has categorically denied having any knowledge of the plan to use sandpaper.
Players, including Mitchell Starc, have also publicly denied any involvement in the scandal.
ALSO READ: Alyssa Healy Breaks Silence On Sandpapergate Row Involving Husband Mitchell Starc
Meanwhile, former Australia captain David Warner, who was one of the three players sanctioned over the incident, has openly backed Khawaja's account. Warner has insisted that the claims made in the autobiography are true.
The latest developments have once again brought one of Australian cricket's most controversial episodes back into the spotlight.
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