Usman Khawaja’s promotional tour for his new book Sabr has hit an unexpected hurdle after a tense television interview reignited debate around the infamous Sandpapergate scandal.
Former Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja called off his remaining TV and book interviews after his latest broadcast appearance with broadcaster Sarah Ferguson on Tuesday backfired miserably.
Khawaja has been promoting his new book Sabr and encountered tough questions from the ABC broadcaster about the Sandpaper controversy.
Regarded as the biggest controversy in world cricket, Khawaja dedicated an entire chapter to Sandpapergate and ignited a new stir after claiming the entire team knew about the controversy.
But his latest appearance was an absolute disaster.
Khawaja faces tough questions on live TV
During his public TV interview on ABC’s 7:30 Report show, Khawaja was seen dodging questions and seemed uncomfortable as broadcaster Sarah grilled her.
She repeatedly pressed Khawaja by asking whether other members of the Australian camp were aware of the ball-tampering scandal apart from those who were sanctioned (Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft). Khawaja did not elaborate on the claim.
The former Aussie opener also refrained from answering whether the veteran bowling unit of Cummins, Starc, Lyon and Hazlewood had any idea about the incident.
“I’ll say again, I’ve given my statement about what happened the game before. I was very open and honest to what I saw and what conversations I had,” he said during the interview.
More from FirstcricketPublisher cancels Khawaja’s remaining interviews
Following the hostile interview, Khawaja’s publisher Penguin issued a statement saying that they had to make adjustments by cancelling all the TV and book interviews. The book tour, however, is not cancelled entirely.
โThe book tour is 100[%] still going ahead, weโve just had to make some adjustments this week, but no major cancellation of the tour at all,โ a statement from Penguin read, as per ABC.
Khawaja also emphasised throughout the interview that he was not targeting or blaming his former teammates, nor was he advocating for Cricket Australia to reopen its investigation into the ball-tampering scandal.