COMMENT
When Usman Khawaja decided to ink into his new book some ticking timebombs about Sandpaper-gate and his former Australian teammates, one wonders what he thought would be the fallout.
He told Triple M, the immediate reaction had been “a lot bigger than I thought”. And he told 7.30, the media have “sensationalised” his claims and turned it into “clickbait”. Sorry, Uzzy, that sounds incredibly naive … and pointing the finger at the media is desperate and plainly wrong.
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Sports stars love calling out “clickbait” when they feel aggrieved by the coverage of a story. But seriously, don’t shoot the messenger, especially when you light a fuse, indirectly call your former teammates liars, and everything explodes.
It would be fairly obvious that the media would not just passively accept what Khawaja was saying in his book without further examination.
And if Khawaja was told by his publishers something different, he was poorly advised.
He does, however, seem legitimately dumbfounded by the backlash, and hopelessly underprepared for the inevitable shrapnel that comes with it.
Khawaja says he wrote the sandpaper claims in an “open and safe environment”. It’s an interesting turn of phrase and it seems now he feels that the claims (or maybe even himself) are no longer in a “safe” place as they get picked apart.
Sorry again, Uzzy, but what did you think would happen?
Khawaja told Triple M: “It’s one thing to attack what I’m saying, but it’s another thing to attack my intention.”
But surely journalists are allowed to ask, “what is your intention?”
Is it to expose the truth? Well, he is now calling it “my truth”.
Is it to somehow exonerate his mate David Warner who was suspended after the investigation into the 2018 scandal? Well, he hasn’t really achieved that.
Is your intention to savage Cricket Australia’s investigation and subsequent findings? Probably, but at the moment you are just calling some old teammates liars.
Of course, if I was Uzzy’s publisher, I would be saying “go for it”. And that is certainly good advice for the book, but that does not necessarily make it wise advice for Khawaja. In fact, it could be foolish.
The fallout is only just beginning and, judging from Mitch Starc’s recent comments, relationships are already starting to turn frosty.
“You know, it’s never been for me about pointing fingers and saying he did this, he said that, and that’s why …. when I first wrote my edit, there was names, there was lots of things, I pulled it back,” Khawaja said.
“Sometimes I’m very specific on things, and sometimes I’m a bit vague on things.”
So, one presumes he thought he was being “vague” when he attacked a bowler in the book without naming him.
“One of the bowlers went on The Back Page TV show and was asked point blank if he’d known anything about the ball tampering,’’ Khawaja wrote.
“He flat out denied it. David was seething, and understandably so. I remember him texting me and sending the clip.
“I didn’t mind the guys staying quiet. Hell, I was doing the same thing. But to come out and say that on live TV really pissed me off. If you aren’t willing to tell the whole story, just stay quiet.’’
That bowler was Josh Hazlewood. And yes, Uzzy, this is very much “pointing fingers”.
Hazlewood was quizzed on The Back Page about his prior knowledge of the sandpaper.
His response was an emphatic “no”.
“We obviously have ball maintenance people in the team, usually batsmen because they’re in the circle and the bowlers field fine leg, deep square – wherever it is. They just look after the ball from time to time. As soon as it stops swinging normal then it starts to reverse swing,” he said at the time.
““We pretty much get it (the ball) at the stop of our mark, one second before we start running in. So we have a quick look, see which side’s a bit worn.”
Khawaja also said on 7.30: “Pat Cummins is a good friend of mine. Mitchell Starc, a lot of these guys (are and) other players in the team (are too).”
And for the moment, Cummins is still affectionately referring to Khawaja as “Uzzy”.
But when the dust settles on all of this several years from now, one could easily imagine that things turn a little icy for Uzzy … and Usman might find himself wondering why it all went wrong.
