Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra said Usman Khawaja has to sell his book amid revelation on Sandpapergate. The former Australian opener revealed that all the Australian players and support staff knew they were tampering the ball on the controversial South African tour back in 2018.
Cameron Bancroft, who was caught on camera, captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were punished severely by Cricket Australia after the Test match.
However, Chopra said Khawaja could have made the revelation via a video or a social media post but he choose otherwise.
“Usman Khawaja has to sell his book. So he said he would dig up the eight-year-old grievances. Some people would say that the truth should come out at some point. I feel it should come. I feel this job could have also been done in a video after retirement,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
The renowned commentator said the former left-hander could have revealed things in a different way.
“Until retirement, you feel you are part of that team, you don’t want to let your players down, and you have to go back to that dressing room. It still seems slightly wrong, but anyway. Even if that’s your thought process, after retirement, you say you have guilt in your heart, and you would come out with it, then you could make a video or post a tweet. He tweets a lot,” he observed.
The former Delhi cricketer said Cricket Australia wanted to show they are holier-than-thou.
“When the Sandpapergate happened, it was said that only two or three people were involved and the rest of the team should be absolved because they had no idea. Everybody maintained the same story. ICC did what they had to, and after that, Cricket Australia wanted to show everyone that they were holier-than-thou, and that they would punish the people more, which included Steve Smith and David Warner, by denying them lifelong captaincy,” he concluded.
