The scandal ripping Australia's cricket stars and their families apart: How Sandpaper cheating scandal has sparked civil war, ruined friendships and gripped the nation

A staggering act of cheating, tearful apologies, a botched investigation, primetime TV grilling and a team locked in a civil war that has dragged in family members.Australian cricket's extraordinary 'Sandpapergate' scandal lay dormant for eight years and has now erupted again. The nation and fans of the sport across the world are still trying to pick through the debris. The wife of one of the culprits suffered a miscarriage, the current captain and his other half were captured in animated conversation on camera this week and long-held bonds between team-mates are being ripped apart. Nobody could have imagined, back in 2018, when an eagle-eyed South African camera crew caught Australian batsman Cameron Bancroft sneaking a small shard of yellow sandpaper down his trousers, that the scandal would still be raging on almost a decade later. Bancroft, a junior member of the team, had been caught red-handed during a Test match in Cape Town using the sandpaper to scuff up the ball, changing the way it moved through the air and giving his side a massive advantage. It was cheating, it was obvious and the fallout was on an epic scale, prompting an enormous shame-fuelled backlash from the Australian public and even condemnation from the Prime Minister. David Warner (right) and his wife Candice (left) have spoken about the personal trauma around Sandpapergate and also tragically suffered a miscarriage back in 2018 Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera hiding sandpaper in his trousers during a 2018 Test against South Africa and the scandal was reignited by Usman Khawaja this month The condition of the ball is crucial to a team's strategy and typically every player would be aware of the plan of attack. But it was only three Aussies who carried the can. Bancroft was suspended for nine months, captain Steve Smith and his vice-skipper David Warner were both banned for a year following a hurried investigation from their bosses at Cricket Australia. They were flown home in disgrace, hounded out of South Africa and have suffered untold abuse for years wherever they play.But were those three men hung out to dry by their friends? There has always been a suspicion that more players must have known what was happening in Cape Town. Complicit but silent as their three mates were dragged through the mud. On November 6, one member of the team, Usman Khawaja, put his head above the parapet, telling the world: 'We all knew.'Speaking about the Sandpapergate chapter in his new book 'Sabr,' Khawaja said: 'It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us.’He added: ‘At the end of the day, I think it’s the right thing to do (going public), particularly for those three guys. And I think most of the guys in the team, at some level, will be relieved that we can finally move on.’Move on? That was wishful thinking. Khawaja's explosive claim effectively painted the rest of the team as liars and cowards who were happy for their team-mates to take the fall instead. ABC's Sarah Ferguson (left) questioned whether current Australian team captain, Pat Cummins, knew about the ball tampering plot but Khawaja (right) did not name names Pat Cummins, pictured with his wife Becky, said she told him to show his emotional when defending his position publicly on Friday Khawaja did not go as far as naming names or detailing who knew what and there was an enormous appetite to finally get to the bottom of it. But the batsman, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, then squirmed during a forensic grilling during a primetime sit-down interview on ABC.It was televised at 7.30pm Down Under and millions tuned in to watch interviewer Sarah Ferguson, who is usually making politicians sweat on the show, interrogate Khawaja. He stuck to a carefully chosen version of events in the book. 'In an ideal world, I don’t want to do this,' he said. 'I don’t want to be the one who comes out and talks about the truth.'The issue is that I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now. I just didn’t think it was going to come down to this. But the longer it’s gone on for, and right from the very start, I’ve been on the train of collectively taking it.‘Even in the changing rooms when I was talking to them after the game. I said: "Take this as a team. We did this as a team. We knew what was going on, and we have to take it as a team.” So I was always of that stance. Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified.’With Khawaja refusing to elaborate any further, pressure ratcheted up on other members of the team to go public and explain themselves. Warner immediately backed up Khawaja, saying his account was '100 per cent accurate', labelling CA's investigation as 'rushed and botched'. Four bowlers who played in the 2018 match – Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon – released a statement in 2021 denying prior knowledge of a foreign object being brought onto the field in Cape Town. Khawaja's autobiography Sabr put pressure on the rest of the side to share their story Of those, it was Starc who responded first to Khawaja's revelations. 'We weren't aware anything was taken onto the field to be tampered with,' he told a heaving press pack.'We saw (the sandpaper) on the big screen in Cape Town. As far as the book is concerned, I haven't read it. I probably won't read it. So that's for Usman to elaborate on.' Asked whether he thought he would speak to Khawaja in the future, Starc replied: 'It's up to him.'Another former team-mate of Khawaja's, James Pattinson, who was not playing in the infamous 2018 Test, accused him of trying to drive up book sales. While others in the cricketing world, such as ex-England wicketkeeper Matt Prior, summed up the view of many experts, claiming it would be impossible for bowlers not to be aware of what was happening to the ball. Bancroft had also previously alluded to it in a newspaper interview when asked if the bowlers knew what was going on, replying: ‘Uh… yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it’s pretty probably self-explanatory.’And yet the bowling unit and rest of the team continue to deny any knowledge of the cheating at the time. Australia's ODI captain, Mitchell Marsh, was obliged to face the cameras on Thursday ahead of their game against England. Interestingly, he bowled with the tampered-with ball in the 2018 Test, did not sign the denial statement with the other four bowlers in 2021 and tried to deadbat every question. Mitchell Marsh refused to be drawn on the scandal despite being peppered with questions ‘Look, there’s obviously been a lot of noise around this week, and I respect that certain people have told their stories,' he said. ‘But I’m not here to share mine today. I know that might sound weird, but it’s a big week for us, and it’s an important time for this one-day group.Still, the questions rained down. Why can’t you – Australia’s captain, for goodness sake – give the people a yes or no? Do people deserve to know if you’ve been keeping this to yourself for eight years? Why didn’t you sign the statement written by the other bowlers saying they knew nothing? Is Khawaja lying?Mitchell wouldn't budge. So it fell to Australia's current Test captain, Pat Cummins, another who played in the 2018 match, to address the nation with a press conference of his own. Just hours before, he had been filmed in what appeared to be an argument with his wife, Becky, which he later claimed was just venting in anger at Khawaja.Pat Cummins and wife Becky spotted in an animated chat outside their Sydney home. He later clarified it wasn’t a spat. Becky was frustrated with Usman Khawaja’s Sandpapergate claims. The couple’s private moment went viral amid the renewed 2018 controversy. 👀 pic.twitter.com/dyKrYjY6Id— HIMANI 🐥 (@himanii_68) November 13, 2026 Cummins immediately went on the attack. His voice wavered but he was well prepared and fielded questions for more than an hour in Sydney.‘Complete and utter nonsense’, was his verdict. ‘When Khawaja says we all knew, if by that he means that we knew sandpaper was going out in the field, he’s 100 per cent wrong,’ said Cummins. ’I’ve said that consistently for the last eight years.'(Usman) says that I and others were architects of a scheme to ball tamper with sandpaper. That's complete and utter nonsense.'It's something I've actually been grappling with the last couple days... Usman is a friend, but I think the way he's been quite casual and flippant with people's lives and reputations... I don't think that's okay, and I don't think that's what friends do.'A reporter then asked: 'So, one of you is not telling the truth, which one of you is not telling the truth?' Cummins replied: 'Well, that's my story. So, I think (Khawaja's) wrong.' David Warner, wife Candice pictured top right, now works with Alyssa Healy (centre), who is the wife of Mitchell Starc - a team-mate from 2018 on the other side of the divide If Cummins had hoped his press conference would put a lid back on the whole sorry saga, he'd soon be disappointed. Warner was commentating for Fox Cricket on Friday and hit back and opened up emotionally about the toll the scandal has taken on his family. He said: 'Yes we accepted it, but at the end of the day my wife (Candice) and I copped the greatest price; we lost a baby during that time, and that's why it really hurts me the most until the truth is accepted.''I still stick by what Uzzie's written in that book; it's the truth. I actually feel that the captain today threw Uzzie under the bus and I'm very, very disappointed.'An example of how messy and intertwined the whole episode has become is that Warner was commentating alongside the wife of Starc, Alyssa Healy, who remains on the other side of the argument. Warner's wife bravely spoke about her miscarriage and the serious impact that Sandpapergate had a week after the couple were sent home from South Africa. Candice Warner (right) spoke bravely about her miscarriage and the effect the Sandpapergate scandal had on the family 'I woke up feeling pretty ordinary. I called Dave to the bathroom and told him I was bleeding. We knew I was miscarrying and we held one another and cried,' Candice told Nine's Now to Love at the time.'The miscarriage was a tragic consequence, a heartbreaking end to a horror tour. Like so many families who've experienced a miscarriage, it's just really sad.'The entire ordeal, from the public humiliations to the ball tampering, it had taken its toll and, from that moment, we decided that no sport, nothing will ever impact our lives like that again.'So what next? Australia head to England for the Ashes next year and this cloud will still be hanging over the team.There have been demands for a fresh investigation. Shortcomings in the original probe were staggering – Khawaja wasn't even spoken to despite sitting next to Bancroft in the changing room – and his new revelations surely demand a fresh look. But Cricket Australia have no intention of reopening that can of worms. Cummins (right) and Khawaja (left) are at loggerheads over what happened in 2018 Perhaps, as Daily Mail Sport's Oliver Holt argues, the International Cricket Council should go over their heads and take control.For now, Khawaja and the trio of culprits who were punished will hope another team-mate is brave enough to step up and back their version of events. Cummins' desire to finally put an end to the scandal ripping through the heart of Australian cricket seems fanciful. The professional and personal cost to the players and their families has been enormous and as long as the Australian public's appetite for the whole truth remains, this mess seems unlikely to be cleared.