'It was ridiculous' - Khawaja details Port Elizabeth sandpapering

Usman Khawaja has detailed how South Africa collapsed against a reverse-swinging ball during the second Test in Gqeberha (known as Port Elizabeth then) in 2018 after Australia had used sandpaper on it before the session began, claiming one of the bowlers said it was "silly" how much the ball was moving.

In his autobiography Sabr, which was released on Tuesday and had already made headlines for its chapter on the ball-tampering scandal, Khawaja writes about the final session on the second day at St George's Park where South Africa lost 4 for 28.

It had emerged in material published by News Corp that Cameron Bancroft had volunteered to use sandpaper on the ball before the Cape Town Test when Australia were caught.

Khawaja does not name individual bowlers during his recounting of what took place and, in a later chapter relating to the statement they put out in 2021, writes: "I'm not going to sit here and tell you what the bowlers saw or didn't. And I'm not here to attack the bowlers. It's been so long now since it happened, and as I've made clear, we made mistakes and made them as a team. And we all stayed silent over the years."

In Gqeberha, South Africa started the session in question on 153 for 2 with Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla building what would become a stand of 88 as the home side replied to Australia's 243. Khawaja writes that South Africa had been able to get reverse swing "in less than 25 overs" but that it had taken Australia "40, 50 overs and, in this innings at Port Elizabeth, we weren't even close."

He writes that he warned Bancroft that "this isn't Shield cricket" with the number of cameras watching the game.

"The next session, we absolutely went through the South Africans. Bangers had walked onto the field after the break, picked up the ball that the umpires had left on the field, and given it a few twists and turns. The ball came up a treat. The shiny side was shiny and, thanks to sandpaper, the reverse side was really rough and dry.

"Every time during the session the ball was passed to me at gully, I'd take a look and think, Wow, even I could reverse swing this ball.. It was ridiculous. The bowlers then went to work and bowled beautifully. Reversing it around corners. We got four wickets for 28 runs.

"It was moving so much that, at one point, one of the bowlers said in the huddle after a wicket, 'Guys, it's going heaps now. Just don't do anything else to it, because it's silly how much it's going.' Most of us laughed. (And we weren't planning to do anything else. The damage had been done to the ball straight after the break.)

"I know what you're probably thinking right now. Didn't you guys get caught in Cape Town, not Port Elizabeth? Yes, we did, but who said we didn't do it the game before as well?"

As it transpired, South Africa still built a match-winning lead as AB de Villiers scored 126 not out from 146 balls, which Khawaja calls "one of the great innings" that was "epic to watch, especially with how much reverse swing we were getting."

Australia managed 239 in their second innings and South Africa won by six wickets. "In our second innings, their bowlers were reverse swinging it everywhere, and it started after about 21 overs. We didn't know what they were doing with the ball - all we knew was that they were better than us at getting it to go reverse. And we were using sandpaper!"

The Cricket Australia (CA) investigation that was run only looked at events in Cape Town with its key finding being that prior knowledge of the incident was confined to three players: Bancroft, David Warner and Steven Smith. Khawaja was not interviewed as part of the process.

In the chapter after the one on the South Africa tour, which details the start of the Justin Langer era, Khawaja recalls being "pissed off" when one of the bowlers made a TV appearance to deny any knowledge of sandpaper.

"One of the bowlers went on The Back Page TV show and was asked point-blank if he'd known anything about the ball tampering. He flat out denied it. David was seething, and understandably so. I remember him texting me and sending the clip."

He goes on to write that he wanted to go public before the final Test in Johannesburg, by which time the bans had already been handed out, and approached then-coach Darren Lehmann at the hotel pool.

"He listened to what I had to say, and when I finished my rant he just looked at me and said, "Uzzy, unfortunately, this affects everyone, mate, not just you. You can come out and say all this stuff, but will it really help anything? The punishments have already been handed down. If anything, it would only make things worse.'"

Lehmann, who resigned before the Johannesburg Test, spoke to ABC Grandstand on Saturday, following Khawaja's initial interview with Nine newspapers, saying he had no recollection of Khawaja's dressing-room plea in Cape Town for the team to take collective responsibility but was not asked about subsequent conversations.

Meanwhile, Khawaja also details how the ball was worked on during the 2017-18 Ashes which preceded the South Africa tour with reference to the Perth and Adelaide Tests.

"On day five, Starcy bowled that unforgettable ball to James Vince off the crack," he writes. "We were reverse swinging it late on day five. Actually, we were reverse swinging the ball the game before too - except it was much tougher, because it was the pink ball. But we - and I say 'we', because were a team, whether you did the deed or not - had worked out that, if we raised the flaps up on the quarter seam on that ball, it was almost like it had a rudder on it and it'd start reverse swinging.

"And before you start going at me, calm down. The whole world was doing whatever little they could to try and reverse swing the ball."