Cricket-Khawaja denies throwing 'anyone under the bus' with comments about ball-tampering scandal

Usman Khawaja on Sunday denied that he had "thrown anyone ​under the bus", a day after ​an excerpt from the former Australian ‌cricketer's autobiography ​claimed the entire team had been aware of ball-tampering during a 2018 tour of South Africa. The scandal, dubbed "Sandpapergate" over Australia's scuffing of ‌the ball with sandpaper in the March 2018 test in Cape Town, sparked a major integrity crisis for Cricket Australia.

However, only captain Steve Smith and batsmen David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who was ‌caught with the sandpaper in his pocket, were banned for their part in the scandal. In ‌a video posted on Instagram, Khawaja, who released the excerpt of his autobiography on Saturday, said he had wanted to "come clean" about the incident since 2018.

"I haven't thrown anyone under the bus," added the 39-year-old, who retired from international ⁠cricket in ​January. "The guys that are ⁠currently in the team right now and the other people that were there on the South African tour, including ⁠me, we're not the victims.

"These three guys (Bancroft, Warner and Smith) took the blame for all of us, and ​they're the victims." Khawaja said he had spoken with the three players involved in "Sandpapergate", and that ⁠he had promised Warner he would share his side of the story.

"These three guys deserve justice. And I haven't pointed ⁠fingers ​at anyone," he added. "I'm still searching for what I was searching all those years ago for us — me included — to take the blame together as a team so we can all ⁠move on from this once and for all."

Australia's test side returned to South Africa for the ⁠first time since 2018 ⁠last month and were beaten 2-1 by the hosts in the three-match series, which was overshadowed in part by discussions of the scandal and ‌the upcoming release ‌of Khawaja's book.