The ghosts of Cape Town are back. Six years after sandpaper scarred Australian cricket, former England international and match referee Chris Broad has ripped into ex-Australia head coach Darren Lehmann, insisting Lehmann escaped disciplinary action despite presiding over a dressing room that orchestrated illegal ball alteration.
Broad pulled no punches. He argued that Lehmann could not possibly have operated in the dark while his charges carried sandpaper onto the pitch at Newlands in March 2018. If the coach truly had no grasp of what unfolded under his watch, Broad insisted, he was unfit to hold the post in the first place.
Broad laid out his indictment in plain terms during a radio appearance:
Darren Lehmann surely knew all about it. And if he did not, he should not have been the coach at the time. I think he has got away lightly … OK, he left his job a few months later, but he did not get any sanctions.
For Broad, the grievance cuts deep. It reaches back a decade to the fiercely contested 2013 Ashes battle in England. During the Trent Bridge Test, his son, England spearhead Stuart Broad, stood his ground and refused to walk after nicking an Ashton Agar delivery straight to Michael Clarke at slip via Brad Haddin's gloves.
Lehmann took the moral high ground then. He publicly castigated the younger Broad, branding the non-walk blatant cheating and calling on Australian crowds to send the fast bowler home in tears during the return tour Down Under.
Captain and coach demanded purity from opponents. Yet five years later, Lehmann's own setup smuggled rough industrial abrasives into an international fixture against South Africa.
And here he is, the coach of the Australian cricket team that brought sandpaper out onto the field of play and denied any knowledge of this happening," Broad said. "I am very angry at Darren Lehmann in this respect.
The fresh firestorm erupted following revelations from veteran Australian opener Usman Khawaja in his upcoming autobiography, Sabr. Khawaja blew apart the long-standing official narrative that ball tampering was an isolated conspiracy hatched by just three rogue individuals.
Cricket Australia handed one-year suspensions to then-captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner, while rookie opener Cameron Bancroft copped a nine-month ban after television cameras caught him rubbing yellow sandpaper against the seam. Lehmann stepped down as coach months later—cleared of administrative wrongdoing and untouched by formal sanctions.
Yet Khawaja writes that the broader squad and backroom staff possessed full knowledge of the tactics. He argues that Smith, Warner, and Bancroft were left to carry the blame alone while Cricket Australia failed to interview multiple players who held direct insight into the team's practices.
The book's disclosures go beyond Cape Town. Khawaja alleges that Australia deployed sandpaper during the second Test in Gqeberha earlier that tour. He also pointed to the 2017-18 home Ashes series, claiming players picked at the quarter-seam to generate reverse swing—a campaign in which Australia hammered England by an innings in Perth to reclaim the urn.
| 2018 Sandpapergate Key Figures & Punishments | Role / Allegation | Official Sanction Imposed | Current Stance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Smith | Captain at Cape Town | 12-month competitive ban | Served penalty; returned to squad |
| David Warner | Vice-captain at Cape Town | 12-month competitive ban | Served penalty; backed Broad on X |
| Cameron Bancroft | Opening batter | 9-month international & domestic ban | Served penalty |
Broad's blistering critique found unexpected support from one of the men who served time on the sidelines. Warner took to social media to back the Englishman's assessment of Lehmann's culpability.
"I could not agree more, and that's hard for me to say!" Warner posted on X.
Lehmann has not yet responded publicly to the latest statements as Khawaja prepares to release Sabr to the public.
| Darren Lehmann |
| Head coach |
| Resigned months later; 0 bans |
| Cleared by CA internal probe |
| Usman Khawaja | Senior batter | None | Details wider complicity in Sabr |