Cricket Australia and the 2018 Test team will never be trusted unless there’s a real sandpaper investigation

Australian cricket desperately needs a proper investigation into what happened at Cape Town in 2018 or it will be impossible for anyone to trust the people involved or the current administrators.

How can we be expected to accept such radically different stories? Usman Khawaja says everyone knew. David Warner says Khawaja’s story is 100 per cent. Chadd Sayers has backed up Warner and Khawaja too.

Yet Pat Cummins says he knew nothing, Mitch Marsh won’t answer a single question and Mitch Starc chose his words extremely carefully while denying knowledge, while also expecting us to believe he hasn’t been paying attention to the fire storm that has engulfed his team.

Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg wasn’t in charge in 2018 and had nothing to do with the original review. But how he can expect people to accept what’s happening at the moment is laughable.

This is what he said earlier this week:

“It’s important to know that back at that time, players were urged to come forward, and they had the opportunity to do so over these past eight years, and that remains the case. We have said we’re comfortable with the outcome of the investigation based on the information we’ve received.

“That includes what we’ve seen from Usman, and our position hasn’t changed on that. We don’t see any compelling reason to open the investigation or revisit this again. I don’t think there’s anything that can be gained from that.”

Nothing to be gained from it? Give me a spell. How about ending the biggest controversy that most of us have seen from the Australian cricket team? How about finding out the truth? How about getting rid of the dark clouds that hang over the sport.

Here’s an idea. Go back to Khawaja and ask him to name the coach who encouraged Cam Bancroft to take sandpaper onto the field. Ask Tim Paine, who Khawaja claimed was in the room at the time, if he heard it happen. Ask the physio too because Khawaja named him. Ring Sayers and ask him what he knows.

We deserve to know Marsh’s account. He’s a leader of the sport and was bowling in Port Elizabeth when the Aussies ripped through South Africa.

He took 2-5 from his first two overs. Across his previous four tests before that series, Marsh bowled 37 overs and took 0-138.

His figures in South Africa for the first two Tests and the first innings at Cape Town were 23 overs and 4-73.

He was bowling when Bancroft got caught with the sandpaper in Cape Town. He’s a West Aussie too so would have spent heaps of time with Bancroft since. What does he know?

Get people to name names. Don’t just say that everyone knew. Be specific.

Then take that information and speak to the next person, and the next, and the next. Interview everyone on the tour because that didn’t happen in 2018.

I’ve read the chapter in Khawaja’s book that is dedicated to sandpaper. It makes sense. I believed what he wrote. He’s been nowhere near as convincing during his interviews since.

I also watched Cummins’ press conference on Friday morning and believed everything he said during his press conference. Cummins answered questions. He made sense.

I found it interesting when he pointed out that he was playing his 13th Test at the time. Cummins wasn’t the experienced leader that he is today. Back then, he was just hoping to bowl well and not get hurt. An inexperienced player could easily have no idea about shenanigans going on within the team.

But three players copped massive penalties and tension within that group is still raging.

It is absolutely clear is that there were, and still are, major factions within that team. It’s also clear that the behaviour within the team at the time was horrible.

It wouldn’t shock me at all to find out that this disaster occurred through miscommunication. But it wouldn’t shock me to discover some people aren’t telling the truth. It wouldn’t shock me to learn that someone went rogue. It wouldn’t shock me to know that some players were in the dark and some players knew everything. But we deserve to know.

Bancroft and Smith lied in the press conference straight after the Aussies were caught in South Africa. People have been evading questions for eight years. It took for Khawaja to set fire to the sport for Cummins to seriously answer anything.

Now it’s time for real answers. Cricket Australia must do a proper investigation, publish the answers and give us the truth.