Former Australia fast bowler Chadd Sayers has claimed, with confidence, that every member of the Australian squad on the 2018 South Africa tour was aware of the plan to use sandpaper on the ball — and that he was the player who carried the sandpaper off the field after the scheme was enacted. Sayers made the remarks in an interview with SEN Radio on Sunday, 15 November 2026, adding fresh detail to one of cricket's most damaging scandals.

What Sayers Said

'I'm comfortable saying where I'm sitting now that everyone knew what was going on in South Africa in 2018,' Sayers told SEN Radio. He said the sandpaper was used across two Test matches and that discussions about how to get the ball reversing took place in the change rooms. He was careful to frame his account as personal recollection rather than an attack on any individual: 'There are no sides; they've both been great to me throughout my time in the Test squad so I'm not taking sides, I'm neutral in all this.'

Sayers, who played only one Test match for Australia and served as the 12th man during the South Africa series, explained why a collective decision would have been necessary. 'I would have thought as a team, when you're trying to get the ball to reverse that everyone would buy in because if one little thing goes wrong in the field to the ball, it stops it from reversing straight away,' he said.

How the Sandpaper Left the Field

Sayers walked through the sequence of events on the day Cameron Bancroft was filmed using the sandpaper at Cape Town. The plan, he said, was for Bancroft to retrieve the ball after the umpires dropped it on the ground and proceed with the tampering. The sandpaper, however, was handed to Sayers — the drinks carrier — to remove. 'I was just the player who took the drinks out at the time. I recall it was a wicket or a drinks break after tea. Onto the field with drinks, and yeah, it was passed onto me,' he elaborated. He acknowledged that this hand-off was not part of the original plan.

Sayers also revealed that David Warner deliberately avoided involvement because cameras were routinely trained on him. 'I think we all know David Warner was seen as being the bad boy of the Australian cricket side at that stage and cameras were always going to be on him so he was not going to take part of it,' he said.

The Dressing Room Fallout

According to Sayers, the squad did not disperse after the incident came to light. The players gathered in the Cape Town dressing room after the day's play and spent between 60 to 90 minutes discussing what had happened and what came next. 'I guess it was always going to happen with this seriousness of what the allegations were,' he recalled, adding that at that point the squad did not fully appreciate how the story would detonate back home in Australia.

Cricket Australia Never Interviewed Sayers

Perhaps the most striking disclosure was that Sayers was never formally interviewed by Cricket Australia (CA) as part of its inquiry. He said the squad was told to remain close to the hotel and was informed interviews and an investigation were imminent — but the conversation never came. 'Obviously didn't go too far away, and was never interviewed. Not really, but maybe because we were 12th man and we didn't play in the game. Maybe because we knew too much information. I'm not too sure. I haven't spoken to Cricket Australia about that issue since leaving South Africa,' he said.

The Wider Context: Khawaja's Book Reignites the Scandal

The Sandpapergate controversy had appeared to settle after the original bans — Steve Smith and Warner each served 12-month suspensions, while Bancroft was banned for nine months. The affair has been thrust back into the spotlight following the release of Usman Khawaja's autobiography 'Sabr', in which Khawaja made claims about the broader awareness of the tampering plan. Warner has since backed Khawaja's account, while Test skipper Pat Cummins described those claims as '100 percent wrong and utter nonsense.' Sayers said he has been portrayed in the media as siding with Khawaja, but maintained he is simply recounting his own experience. The divergence in accounts among former and current players suggests the full picture of what happened in South Africa eight years ago remains contested.