Starc refuses to budge on Sandpapergate account despite Warner's backing of Khawaja

Mitchell Starc has declined to alter his account of the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, insisting his version of events matches the statement issued by Australia's bowlers back in 2021, even as David Warner has thrown his support behind Usman Khawaja's fresh claims about the affair.

Khawaja's new autobiography, Sabr, alleges that knowledge of the plan to tamper with the ball during the Cape Town Test against South Africa extended well beyond the three players who were punished. He suggests the whole Australian playing group and support staff were aware of what became known as Sandpapergate.

Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft were the only players sanctioned after the 2018 incident, receiving suspensions and leadership bans, while the rest of the squad was cleared.

Warner has since described Khawaja's account as "100% accurate" and questioned the thoroughness of Cricket Australia's original investigation, according to Yahoo Sports. Warner has previously characterised that inquiry as hasty and rushed.

Speaking at an event to mark the launch of Australia's home summer, Starc said he had not closely followed the renewed debate but was clear that his own recollection had not shifted.

"I haven't really paid much attention to it to be fair," Starc said, as quoted by Fox Sports and reported by Yahoo Sports. "Obviously there are differing opinions of eight years ago. We were heavily grilled through the process at the time and since. I won't speak on behalf of the bowlers, but, from where I stand, my opinion hasn't changed, and my recollection hasn't changed from what we said in 2021."

Starc also repeated his denial that the bowling group had any advance knowledge of a foreign object being brought onto the field in Cape Town. "We weren't aware anything was taken on the field to be tampered with. We saw it on the big screen in Cape Town," he said.

That position mirrors the joint statement issued in 2021 by Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, in which the bowling quartet denied prior knowledge of the plot to alter the ball's condition.

Cricket365's analysis of the renewed controversy argues that the wider cricketing public, media and board were always sceptical that only three players could have been involved, pointing to the basic mechanics of a Test match - bowlers inspecting the ball before every delivery and wicketkeepers handling it repeatedly - as reason enough to doubt that teammates were oblivious to its altered state.

Khawaja's book does not accuse specific individuals of lying, with Cricket365 describing his approach in Sabr as diplomatic even as the broader implication of collective awareness lands as a serious challenge to the official version of events accepted in 2018.

With Starc holding firm and Warner publicly amplifying Khawaja's claims, the gap between the bowlers' account and that of the suspended trio remains unresolved as Australia's summer schedule gets under way.