Sydney: Australia captain Pat Cummins on Friday said Usman Khawaja's allegations over the 2018 ball-tampering incident are 'complete nonsense'. Khawaja had claimed that everyone in the team knew about the use of sandpaper in the 2018 Cape Town Test. David Warner had called these allegations '100 percent true', whereas today Cummins has rejected it by calling it '100 percent wrong'.
'I didn't know that sandpaper was being used on the field'
Speaking on the allegations in a 69-minute press conference at Cricket Central in Sydney, Cummins said, “I took a while to respond to Usman's allegations. I was trying to understand what those allegations actually were, that's why it took me a few days. When he says we all knew, if he means we knew there was sandpaper going on the field, then he is 100 per cent wrong. I have been saying this for the last eight years, I had no idea. That this is happening. But I think Usman is actually saying things that are more serious than that. He says that I and others were the architects of a scheme to ball-tamper with sandpaper. This is complete nonsense.”
'This is not the Osman I know'
He said, “I was really shocked this week when I found out that Usman admitted he told Cameron Bancroft to be careful when using sandpaper. This is not the Usman I know. This is not the Usman I think of, or who has been part of the team that has helped to rebuild this Australian cricket culture over the last eight years, and you know the Usman who would have stopped it from happening right there. Usman is a “Friends, but friends are not casual with each other's lives. In my book, Uzi has been casual with the lives of many others. I am 100% supportive of his right to tell his story, but we have to be responsible for the things we say and do.”
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