22 pages of Sandpaper storm

A retired controversial cricketer releases his autobiography less than a year after calling time on his international career The book as expected turns out to be spicy Teammates are projected negatively the establishment taken to task all that the player wanted to say in his playing days is now said with a licence fleshed out elaborately without the fear of being censured by the powers that beThe author in question is accused of using controversy to raise book sales This is the current story of former Australian batsman Usman Khawaja and this is what he has to deal with for reopening the sordid Sandpapergate chapter in Australian cricket By revealing that all members of the team he played in were involved in the dubious method to gain an unfair advantage over South Africa in the 201718 Test series Khawaja has replaced the full stop with a comma and added to the storyTwentytwo out of 448 pages have been used up for the controversy that rocked Australian cricket in the book titled SabrFor starters letrsquos deal with a couple of accusations First that Khawaja is pumping up book sales which in turn enhances his bank balance But book deals donrsquot earn you a fortuneAccusation No 2 Khawaja is not living up to what a team man should be All 15 of the players who figured for Australia in the recently concluded threematch Test series against South Africa have been his Australia teammate at some point in time A person whose intent was to destabilise the team would have released his book before or during the first part of the South Africa tour Imagine what that would do to the players going into battle Point to note here is that cricket books in Australia are released at the start of their seasonIf teammates denigrate him for not being a team player what does that say about their decision to let only three scapegoats take the heat Thatrsquos not being a loyal teammate And it is Khawaja who is now displaying true loyalty to three matesThe book has also raised the ldquoWhy nowrdquo question considering Sandpapergate blew up in 2018 Khawajarsquos timing can be explained through a genuine fear of the authorities taking exception then to what he had to say of the controversy His place in the team would have been under severe scrutiny after that revelationKhawaja meanwhile is not the first cricketer to wait until retirement to reopen a can of wormsLet me provide a notverywellknown example It concerns the year 1963 when West Indies were touring England The touring sidersquos fast bowler Charlie Griffith was accused of chucking and there was an attempt to place a lid on the controversy for fear of an uproar in England which had a fair share of the Caribbean communityIn the England team was ace fast bowler Fred Trueman a man never known to embrace diplomacy like he did a cricketing challenge Trueman narrated this incident in his 1976 autobiography Ball of Fire published by JM Dent amp SonsldquoI was having a quiet soak in one of the individual bathrooms at Lordrsquos The place was otherwise deserted Then I heard voices in the corridor outside And I found myself listening to RVW Robins chairman of the England selectors at the time apparently talking to the two umpires about the suspect action of Griffith I heard him say that the umpires should under no circumstances call Griffith for throwing When they objected he explained that there was a lot of worry about racial tension in London and he feared a riot might be sparked off if Griffith was noballed at Lordrsquos When I came out of the bathroom Mr Robins was waiting for me He had heard me moving about He asked me if I had overheard the conversation so I had to admit that indeed I had Then he solemnly asked me to give my word never to disclose it I promised I would keep silent for a time but told him that I thought it should be made public eventually if only to point out the handicap England had been playing under I must say I was amazed that the chairman of selectors could give such guidance to umpiresldquoTwo years later when Mr Robins came to have a talk with me he referred to the incident and called it the bestkept secret in cricket I repeated my intention to let it out one dayrdquo And thatrsquos how it landed up in Truemanrsquos book 13 years laterBall of Fire is an entertaining read but the storm mdash unlike the one caused by Khawajarsquos book mdash did not spreadThe rest of Khawajarsquos book promises to be fascinating and shouldnrsquot be left unread mdash his beginnings the struggles to play for Australia despite being Pakistaniborn and all those times when he felt victimisedAmidst support and condemnation Khawaja will have to pay a heavy price for this But the man has let his conscience be his guide May he get some credit for thatmiddayrsquos Editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper