Khawaja Labels Victorians ‘Genius’ at Ball Tampering as Lehmann Rejects Blanket Claim

Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja has offered a candid account of ball tampering within Australian domestic cricket, describing Victoria’s Sheffield Shield sides of the 2000s and 2010s as the masters of the craft.

Writing in his autobiography, Sabr, Khawaja outlined how altering the condition of the red Kookaburra ball was an open secret across state dressing rooms, driven by the need to generate reverse swing on unyielding pitches.

The Domestic Dark Arts

Khawaja recounted several methods employed by teammates and opponents to rough up the ball, including the use of dried super glue on towels to create an abrasive surface.

"The Victorians were probably the best at it," Khawaja wrote. "The MCG used to be dead and flat. Reverse swing and a bit of spin was the only way you could win a game there."

He described Victoria's tactics during that era as "genius", pointing out that players would regularly throw the ball into the pitch on the bounce or look for opportunistic moments when the ball cleared the boundary rope.

Khawaja highlighted an incident where Victoria’s bowling coach, Micky Lewis, was caught on camera scraping the ball against a concrete gutter during a match.

Tactical Evolution in Sheffield Shield Cricket

The veteran left-hander framed these actions not as isolated rogue behaviour, but as an entrenched subculture developed to counter benign batting decks:

1. Teams encountered uncharacteristically flat, benign multi-day wickets across Australia.
2. Conventional swing dissipated quickly once the ball lost its initial lacquer.
3. Fielding sides systematically worked on one side using sweat and polish while deliberately roughing up the other.
4. Fielders utilised rough abrasive surfaces, boundary gutters, and towels to accelerate wear on the designated rough side.
5. Fast bowlers gained sharp reverse swing on fourth- and fifth-day pitches, drastically altering contest dynamics.

Lehmann Rejects 'Everyone Knew' Cape Town Assertion

Khawaja admitted that while he did not physically alter balls himself, his awareness of the tactics made him feel complicit in an era where manipulating the ball was considered widespread across international and domestic cricket.

However, former Australian head coach Darren Lehmann has pushed back against suggestions that knowledge of ball-tampering methods was universal within the national setup.

Lehmann, who stepped down as national coach following the 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering scandal involving Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft, denied claims that the wider dressing room was aware of the plot to use sandpaper during that match.

Khawaja's revelations provide rare, unvarnished insight into the grey areas of Australian cricket history, underscoring how blurred the ethical lines had become long before the events of Newlands triggered a complete overhaul of the national team's culture.