It leaves the ball in the court of the other Australian players involved, the coaching staff and CA.
On Tuesday, CA chief executive Todd Greenberg said, with a straight face, he did not see “any compelling reason” to reopen the investigation into the ball-tampering saga.
What evidence could compel Greenberg to act? Even if Khawaja has not directly pointed the finger at anyone else in the dressing room that day, surely CA should be curious about the claims that are currently causing so much reputational damage, especially when Khawaja and Warner have called into question the rigour of the original investigation.
The Cape Town files have never been made public. In 2021, David Saker, an Australia assistant coach in 2018, called for them to be released. Now, Saker is not named but is among the staff Khawaja has implicated in the book by claiming a member of the backroom team encouraged Bancroft. That allegation alone surely merits further scrutiny by CA.
Of the players in the Australia XI on that Saturday at Newlands, three were punished; now Khawaja has accepted his share of responsibility, making four.
Tim Paine inherited the captaincy, a reign that ended in his own scandal. Mitchell Marsh remains an active player and is about to skipper Australia in the limited-overs series against England. Marsh will speak on Thursday. His brother Shaun was also in the team in Cape Town. That makes seven.
Then there are the four bowlers, possibly the greatest four-man attack ever assembled.
Starc, with more Test wickets than any other left-arm bowler in history. Lyon, the most successful orthodox finger-spinner in Test cricket. Josh Hazlewood, the reincarnation of Glenn McGrath. Pat Cummins, the clean-cut current Australia captain, an Ashes and World Cup-winning leader.
That they are still Australia’s first-choice bowling unit is testament to their talent, longevity and desire. They remain as a quartet, hunting prizes that have previously eluded them over the coming year – an away Test series win in India, winning the Ashes in England.
As it stands, they are adhering to a joint-statement made in 2021 that they “did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field”.
The plausibility of elite bowlers not knowing a ball has been tampered with is up for debate. The quartet point to the fact the on-field umpires on the day did not see any reason to change the ball at the time. In contrast, Khawaja said the effects of sandpaper could leave swirls on the leather.
For Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon, champion bowlers, the insinuation hangs over them. It is hard to prove a negative. Perhaps the off-ramp is for the foursome to themselves call for a reopening of the investigation? It could clear their names.
As it stands, Australian cricket is stuck in a sandpaper limbo, a halfway house full of historical scandal, innuendo and unanswered questions. According to former captain Michael Clarke, further inaction would leave supporters unable to “trust what’s real”.
Perhaps there is another scenario, the unpalatable prospect of those at the top having no desire to open the door for fear of what might lie behind it. It is worth remembering that the past two Australia captains have lost the job in disgrace: Smith for sandpaper, Paine for sexting.
Is that worse than the status quo? Sandpaper is the stench Australian cricket cannot shake.
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