Former Australia spinner Stuart MacGill has admitted deliberately using sandpaper to alter the condition of cricket balls during his playing career, revealing that he experimented with methods of tampering without attracting the attention of match officials.
The admission comes amid renewed controversy over Australia’s 2018 Sandpapergate scandal, following Usman Khawaja‘s allegations about the extent of knowledge within the national team and David Warner‘s subsequent endorsement of Khawaja’s account.
MacGill, who represented Australia in 44 Tests and three ODIs between 1998 and 2008, described his own experiences during a discussion with Steve O’Keefe and Moises Henriques on the FanaticsTV YouTube show.
MacGill reveals his sandpaper method
MacGill’s account concerned a practice he used long before Cameron Bancroft was caught with sandpaper during Australia’s third Test against South Africa in Cape Town in 2018.
Speaking on the FanaticsTV YouTube show, the former Australia spinner said: “I’d cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to my thumb.”
MacGill described how he exploited the period before play resumed to interfere with the ball, removing the material before the first delivery of the session.
“It was not a part of a massive ‘global cheating scam’; I was just really curious to see what would happen and if it would work. And oh, it works (laughs). What they would do is the umpires as you’re walking out on the ground, they used to put the ball sort of about 20 metres over the boundary and leave it there and you’d run out on the field, pick it up and go on the field. I would tape a little bit of a square of sandpaper on my thumb, pick the ball up just after tea, scratch the living daylights out of it, pull the sandpaper off, chuck it in the gutter before a ball had even been bowled. So nobody even knew that I’d done it, apart from all the scratches on the ball,” MacGill added.
His experiences were not limited to that particular technique. MacGill also recalled sewing sandpaper onto his trousers and described an occasion when one of his teams placed a match ball in a freezer to experiment with how it might affect play.
Former spinner discusses cricket’s ball-tampering culture
MacGill’s comments emerged as O’Keefe and Henriques discussed different techniques they had encountered during their careers.
The former leg-spinner also addressed the broader history of ball tampering, suggesting that attempts to manipulate the condition of cricket balls may have existed for generations.
“It probably has been (ball tampering going on since the early days of Test cricket) because it’s just getting a competitive advantage, right?” MacGill noted.
He also discussed how perceptions of opponents’ conduct influenced his own attitude towards the practice.
“And because we know that everybody’s doing it, it doesn’t feel so bad. Like if I’m playing against South Africa, I know that they’ve done everything that I’ve done; I don’t feel bad about it,” he said.
Khawaja’s revelations bring Sandpapergate back into focus
MacGill’s disclosure follows a series of allegations by former Australia opener Usman Khawaja concerning the 2018 tour of South Africa.
As previously reported by cricexec, Khawaja alleged in his autobiography _Sabr_ that sandpaper had been used during the second Test in Port Elizabeth, before Bancroft was caught attempting to alter the ball in Cape Town.
Khawaja also questioned why responsibility for the scandal fell primarily on Bancroft, Warner and then-Captain Steve Smith, arguing that the Australian touring party should have accepted collective accountability.
The three players received substantial suspensions following Cricket Australia’s investigation. Smith and Warner were banned for 12 months each, while Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.
Khawaja has since distinguished his argument for collective responsibility from any suggestion that every player personally participated in the same conduct. However, he has maintained that awareness of the ball-tampering activity extended beyond the three sanctioned players.
Warner, who was among those punished, has publicly supported Khawaja’s account and questioned the thoroughness of Cricket Australia’s investigation.
Cricket Australia’s findings remain disputed
The renewed debate has exposed continuing differences between the accounts of individuals associated with Australia’s 2018 touring party.
Former Australia Head Coach Darren Lehmann has denied knowing about the alleged sandpaper discussions and disputed suggestions that everyone in the team was aware of the operation.
Mitchell Starc has also rejected allegations concerning his knowledge of sandpaper being taken onto the field. Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon previously issued a joint statement denying prior knowledge that a foreign substance had been brought onto the field to alter the ball during the Cape Town Test.
Cricket Australia, meanwhile, has maintained confidence in its original integrity investigation, stating that relevant information presented to the governing body has been considered.
Khawaja and Warner have challenged the investigation’s scope, particularly the failure to interview Khawaja despite his presence in the dressing room alongside Bancroft during the Cape Town Test.
MacGill’s admission does not establish what Australia’s players or coaches knew in 2018, but it provides a separate account of deliberate sandpaper use within Australian cricket during an earlier period.
His disclosure comes as Cricket Australia continues to defend its original findings, while Khawaja’s allegations and Warner’s public support have brought the unresolved disagreements surrounding Sandpapergate back into focus.
