Australia vs South Africa Test: Usman Khawaja says Aussies have moved on from Sandpapergate
The Sanspapergate inquiry was criticised for being too narrow, and now Australian test star Usman Khawaja has confirmed he was never officially spoken to.
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Usman Khawaja believes the Australian side has “grown up’’ since the Sandpapergate scandal but was surprised he was not asked to give his version of events.
Saturday at the Gabba is the first Test between Australia and South Africa since the infamous Cape Town ball tampering scandal of 2018.
The Sandpapergate inquiry conducted by former Cricket Australia head of integrity Iain Roy has been criticised for being too narrow and not interviewing enough people and Khawaja confirmed he was not officially spoken to.
When asked whether he was surprised, he said: “At the time, yes.’’
Straight-shooting Khawaja would have been an interesting interviewee because he is known for speaking his mind rather than being chained to the flow of team thinking.
The cancellation of David Warner’s leadership ban review hearing may have cost the world the chance of hearing Khawaja’s side of the story had he been called as a witness.
Khawaja feels the team has done its best to leave the earth-quaking event behind it and said there had not been a word of it spoken in the Australian team camp.
“I’m being genuine that time heals all wounds I guess in a way the guys have come so far from that,’’ Khawaja said before training in Brisbane today.
“Obviously being part of that tour I know we are a very different Australian cricket team from what we were back then. The way we go about it, the way we play. A lot of the guys have matured as cricketers and humans. They are a bit older, a couple more kids, we play our cricket differently.
“It’s the first time we have played South Africa after what happened but everyone has got so many things happening in their lives from where they were four years ago. I think that actually gave the guys a lot of perspective.
“Australian cricket as a whole and as individual players probably hit rock bottom. It gives you a lot of time to reflect on things. Guys have genuinely learnt a lot from that incident.
“I look at where the guys were four years ago and where the guys are now and there has been a lot of growing up.
“I probably got to see it better than most because I was in the team then I went away and came back in and it is a nice change.’’
SURPRISE FAN CHOICE FOR AUS V SOUTH AFRICA SERIES NAME
A batsman who left Australia after a major contract fallout is the fans’ surprise choice to be honoured with naming rights for the South African-Australia Test series.
Flint hard opening batsman Kepler Wessels, now a Brisbane-based match referee, is the only cricketer to play Tests for both Australia and South Africa.
Given there is no perpetual trophy awarded to the winner of the series, we asked readers to vote on who they believe should be honoured with naming rights for the Trophy for the South Africa-Australia series which starts at the Gabba on Saturday.
The convincing winner was super tough batsman Wessels who played 24 Tests for Australia before leaving for South Africa in protest after being offered a low level contract by the Australian Cricket Board.
The Board was upset Wessels had been linked in an organising capacity with Australia’s rebel tours of South Africa, a fact he has always denied.
Wessels unique journey included being captain of the South African side at the 1992 World Cup in Australia just after their admission from apartheid.
The Wessels Cup name polled around 40% of voting in our on-line poll with several Twitter wags suggested the silverware should be called The Kepler Vessel.
The next most popular vote was for the Waugh-Pollock Trophy in honour of Steve and Mark Waugh and the Pollock family with the Kallis-Ponting Trophy coming in third.
It has been rumoured that some years ago there were discussions over the name Waugh-Pollock but South African officials were not keen on the idea given that Graeme and Peter Pollock were part of all white teams in the apartheid era.
Cricket Australia asked fans to nominate suggestions for a perpetual trophy in 2016 but the campaign did not reach a conclusion.
CA remains open to suggestions for a perpetual trophy such as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for Australia’s series with India.
The presence of a perpetual trophy can shape the course of a series because teams that hold it will retain it if it is a drawn series and thus have a slight advantage entering the series.
South Africa’s perfect weapon playing for wrong country
South Africa is about to set eyes on the player it needs to balance its Test team. Sadly, he‘s in the other dressing room.
Michael Neser, the crafty swing and seam bowler, looks like missing out on a chance to play a Test for Australia before his home crowd against South Africa at the Gabba on Saturday.
Neser’s “other home’’ was South Africa.
The doctor’s son was raised in the Pretoria region before moving to Australia at age nine after his family was robbed at a set of traffic lights.
Their car was rammed by a drunk driver and after they left the vehicle to regain their composure, Neser’s family returned to find all their personal possessions had been stolen.
It’s hard to know whether Neser would have been chosen for South Africa had he stayed in the country of his birth, but this much is sure – they will miss having someone just like him in Saturday’s first Test against Australia at the Gabba.
South Africa, the nation which produced iconic all-rounders Jacques Kallis and Mike Procter, has no multiskilled player to balance their Test XI.
As a consequence, they are likely to choose just five specialist batsmen and promote keeper Kyle Verreyne to No.6.
That will allow them to play five bowlers, but it also makes their tail worryingly long, especially as this is not one of their great top orders.
Neser, with a first class batting average of 25 and more ability than his numbers show, would have been a neat fit at No.7.
The challenge for Neser to play more Tests is that Australia generally likes its fast men to be able to be bounce bowlers who push the speedometer to around 140km/h.
But if he misses out on Tests this summer he will still be a frontline contender for next year’s Ashes tour.
South Africa’s fragile top order would make it a gamble to play five bowlers but bowling coach Charl Langeveldt hinted strongly this was the Proteas’ preferred option when he said the main priority of the Test squad was to take 20 wickets per Test.
South Africa’s tall pacy, quicks looked in good form in their only warm-up match at the Gabba this week and will be a vast improvement on the modest fare Australia faced in their first two Tests of the summer against the West Indies.
Series between bitter rivals needs a name
Australia’s Test series against South Africa has got everything – except something to play for.
Incredibly, the clash between these two ancient, hard-punching rivals has no perpetual trophy.
In 2016, Cricket Australia started an online campaign to invite readers to suggest names but, quite mysteriously, a solution was never found and the campaign petered out.
It’s time to light the fire again and see what the fans think.
South Africa and Australia have met in 15 Test series since the Apartheid era without having a trophy that carries an official name in the way that clashes with the West Indies are honoured by the Sir Frank Worrell Trophy.
Old “Frank’’ has copped plenty of bumps over the years, the latest when the lock had to be “jimmied’’ by ground staff in Adelaide this week, but it’s still a notable piece of silverware and certainly better than competing for thin air.
So where do we go from here?
I popped the Trophy question to South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada this week and he smiled broadly before quipping: “What about the Kepler Wessels Cup because he played for both nations?
“No matter whether the trophy goes to South Africa or Australia he’s a winner. He’d would be quite chuffed with that.’’
Wessels was indeed the only cricketer to play Tests for both nations, notching 24 Tests for Australia before returning to South Africa to lead the team back into international cricket after Apartheid. Wessels has since returned to live in Brisbane and was match referee for South Australia’s trial game at Allan Border Field this week.
One worthy choice would be the Donald-McGrath Trophy to honour fast bowling greats Allan Donald and Glenn McGrath, an option first raised by News Corp a decade ago.
These two not only ended up good friends but they used to monitor each other’s results in the morning paper and be motivated to outshine the other.
McGrath and Donald took their 300th wickets a month apart from a similar number of Tests in 2000.
Donald once said of his great rival: “It’s just a shame we could never get to bowl together in a Test match. McGrath and Donald opening for a World XI against the rest. That’s something I’d love to see.”
McGrath replied: “I get along well with him ... he’s a great bowler and for a guy to have his longevity for the cricket he has played is a credit to him.”
After the anguish of Sandpapergate to link rivals who had such an immense connection and respect for each other would add a special inspiring flavour to the final act of the series.
What a joy it would be – particularly after the bitter falling out of Sandpapergate – to appoint two men with incredible mutual respect.
But there are many other names worthy of consideration. Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Adam Gilchrist and Mark Boucher all had their moments.
Any of them would be a better choice than the current option – nobody.
Watch on Warner as Aussies back under-fire opener
— Peter Lalor
The Australian team is backing David Warner to turn around recent modest form, insisting he is part of their plans for the Indian series and the World Test Championship.
Coach Andrew McDonald did indicate, however, that they would be monitoring him in the South African series.
The 36-year-old has not scored a hundred since January 2020 and is averaging around 30 since then.
Warner, one of the most committed and valued members of the side, plays his 100th Test at the MCG and has signalled that he does not plan to play Test cricket next summer.
A foundation stone at the top of the order and a dynamic presence in the field, he has been an essential part of Australian cricket since making his Test debut in December 2011.
He has been one of the first picked in any white ball side. His form remains strong in white ball cricket. Warner won player of the series in the successful 2021 T20 World Cup campaign and in both the T20 series against the West Indies and the ODI series against England since.
Coach Andrew McDonald insisted that there are no concerns about Warner’s inability to seize recent opportunities.
“Not at this stage,” he said. “His appetite for the work, in and around training is still there.
“He’s busy at the crease, and you’ve seen signs that he is going well.
‘He’s just found different ways to get out, and sometimes that can happen.
“He’s eager to continue on at this stage, he hasn’t hinted anything else.
“We are building towards a World Test Championship as well, and he wants to be part of that so that’s a clear focus for us and we’ve got South Africa as a part of that.
“And then on to India.
“At this stage, we’ve got him in our plans for India.
“We’ll see what happens in the next three Test matches, but at this stage he’s firmly in our thoughts for India.”
McDonald acknowledged that Warner’s average (24) in India was not high but said it needed to be put into context.
“There’s been some challenging conditions in India, I haven’t looked through all of those Test matches but I imagine there would have been some similar averages in amongst that from other batters as well,” he said.
“We’ve seen the more times you tour certain areas of the world, the better you get at it.
“But it’s also the knowledge that he can pass on to the younger players in and amongst that.
“We really value our senior players, both on and off the field in terms of that education process, even when they’re out there in amongst the heat of the battle.
“So there’s huge benefit for those players to be touring those areas, and albeit if they don’t play they can still have an impact.”
Phillip Hughes was the first of 13 different players who have appeared at the other end to open the batting with the veteran.
Warner, who has three young girls, is a committed family man and recently walked away from an appeals process aimed at lifting his lifetime leadership ban, saying he said he was not willing to subject them to any more controversy.
Just days later his wife Candice was abused by a fan at Adelaide Oval while she walked with two of the children to meet their father. Cricket Australia has offered to provide her with security after she said cricket no longer felt safe for her family.
Warner is renowned for his ability to block out distractions in a game and McDonald said he had not shown any sense of being otherwise occupied during this series.
“He’s great at compartmentalising, separating the off-field from the on-field and I think most of the great champions do that very well,” he said.
“I sense this situation is not different.
“We respect and understand David’s decision to withdraw from that appeals process.
‘He’s moved forward, we’re moving forward as a team and we’ve got a seriously good opponent confronting us at the Gabba so our focus is firmly on that.
“And so is David’s.”
The coach backed up players assertions that the dressing room is oblivious to extraneous noise at a time when they have been subject to bleating and attack from the noisy band of culture war warriors.
The Warner appeal also lead to a reignition of the controversy surrounding
“We’re not sure what’s happening inside the walls of the South African dressing room, but within the walls of our dressing room, you wouldn’t notice any distractions.
“This week, we move forward.
“People are critiquing that we need to address things on the inside – we’ve moved on from that and you wouldn’t notice the noise that’s on the outside.
“That’s definitely not on the inside, if that makes sense.
“We’ve moved on.”
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