Cricket Australia rules out reopening 2018 ball-tampering probe
Chief executive Todd Greenberg said there was no compelling reason to revisit the probe after Usman Khawaja's memoir claims.
Cricket Australia has ruled out reopening its investigation into the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, chief executive Todd Greenberg said on Tuesday.
Greenberg said he had spoken to several members of the 2018 touring squad to South Africa since Usman Khawaja revived the events over the weekend.
In his memoir, Khawaja claimed Australia used sandpaper in the Test before Cape Town at St George's Park in 2018.
Cricket Australia's original investigation found that only Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner would face sanctions, and all three were banned before returning to the Test side.
"We don't see any compelling reason to open the investigation or revisit this again," Greenberg told SEN.
Greenberg said the board was comfortable with the outcome of the investigation based on the information it had received, including what it had seen from Khawaja.
"There's absolutely no benefit in going back, that's the clear position of the CA board," he said.
Greenberg said reaching a consensus among all players on the events of 2018 would never happen, adding that other players held a very different version of events.
The bowlers from the Cape Town Test, Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, issued a statement in 2021 denying prior knowledge of the plan to use sandpaper on the ball.
Greenberg said he expected the bowlers' position to remain unchanged when Cummins speaks publicly in the coming days or weeks.
The 2018 scandal led to a cultural review of Australian cricket, and Greenberg said closing the chapter would be a very hard task to achieve.