As Australian cricket captain Pat Cummins spent more than an hour being grilled by reporters over one of sport’s biggest cheating scandals, the tension in the hall was occasionally pierced by muffled cheers.
Outside, a crucial match in Australia’s top tier domestic cricket was getting under way. Cummins was clear he’d rather we all be talking about that.
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But inside the nets at Cricket Central in Sydney, he faced more than a dozen TV cameras and a gaggle of journalists several times as large. His goal: to put rumours of his involvement in “sandpapergate” to rest.
“I don’t want to talk about this again after today,” he said. “Even if it takes all day… I’ll stay here until we have no more questions.”
A book by his friend and former teammate Usman Khawaja has renewed scrutiny on a 2018 plot to tamper with the ball using sandpaper in Australia’s third Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.
Three players admitted they were involved at the time and were handed lengthy bans, but in a memoir released last week, Khawaja said the entire Australia team knew about the sandpaper scheme.
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His claims have plunged the Australian cricket world into chaos, thrown speculation over key figures from that Test – including Cummins who has since risen to hold what many joke is Australia’s most important job – and reopened wounds for fans.
“I’m a bit bored of it,” one woman watching the New South Wales vs South Australia Sheffield Shield match said.
Josh, 28, told the BBC he thought everyone had moved on: “It’s just a bit crazy that it’s all blown up again… I think it is a bit ridiculous, after eight years.”
Among fans, there’s frustration that Khawaja has chosen to come forward now, almost a decade on and at the start of an exciting summer, and year, of cricket. Though there’s an argument there’d never be a good time for Khawaja, who retried in January, to make these allegations.
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There’s worry about the impact on the men’s team’s performance this summer, after a lacklustre showing in South Africa last month – its first Test matches there since the 2018 incident.
There’s a sense of injustice that Australia can’t escape the scandal, given – according to many players themselves – how common boundary-bending on ball tampering apparently was in that era.
“It’s a bit of a stitch up,” 21-year-old James said.
“Every country has done it… if it wasn’t us, it was probably going to be someone else.”
Khawaja’s memoir is also causing rancour among current and former players and coaches.
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David Warner, who received the most severe punishment of the Cape Town trio, said Khawaja was telling the truth and that Cummins’ press conference denying the claims “threw him under the bus”.
Steve Smith, the captain at the time who was also suspended, has been travelling overseas and is yet to say anything publicly about the claims in the book. Cameron Bancroft is also staying silent for now despite previously suggesting others knew.
But half of Australia’s living cricket royalty and a slew of former coaches – some of who have been accused of wrongdoing too – have thrown in their two cents.
And Cricket Australia is under pressure from some to reopen its investigation into sandpapergate – something chief executive Tod Greenberg has already ruled out.
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Prof David Rowe of the University of Western Sydney told the BBC the saga was still so painful for many players and fans as the country sees itself as “a nation of good sports”.
“The idea of being a good sport is two things. One is being good at sport, so you actually win. But the other side is that you do it honourably and fairly,” he said.
“Many Australians would see themselves as above all that. That is: cheating is what other teams get up to… not the nation of good sports.”
He said the revelation was a “nasty shock” which brought the country “collective shame” as well as doubts that the cricket scene would be able to move on without a fresh response from the governing body, Cricket Australia.
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“One of the best ways to fuel conspiracy theory and keep sandpapergate going is to essentially say ‘there’s no more to see here’ – especially when that comes from the authorities,” Rowe said.
Asked about a fresh investigation, Cummins said it was a matter for Cricket Australia.
Over the marathon press conference – which one reporter suggested was the longest in Australian sporting history – Cummins was cautious, pausing often to consider his responses and to make sure they answered the questions being asked of him.
But he was also frank – using strong words to reject Khawaja’s claims and admitting he was frustrated a friend had put him in this position. “Friends aren’t casual with each other’s lives and reputations… That’s something I’ve been grappling with the last couple of days.”
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As the reporters ran out of steam, Cummins said it was “annoying” that sandpapergate scandal was still a distraction for Australian cricket. He gestured outside to the Sheffield Shield match and mentioning Friday’s one-day international against England in Perth, from which he and other key players are being rested.
“It’s been eight years… Hopefully today we put a line through it and we’re done and we can all move on to much more fun topics, like actual cricket.”
Few people think he’ll get his wish.
“It’s going to be hard to move on, given that there’s two sides of the story and it doesn’t look like either side is going to back down,” James said.
“I don’t know what the outcome will be.”
