Former Australia spinner Stuart MacGill has made a starling admission about ball-tampering, revealing that he used sandpaper to alter the condition of the cricket ball during his playing career. The former leg-spinner shared details of the practice during a discussion with fellow Australian cricketers Steve O’Keefe and Moises Henriques on the FanaticsTV show Chin Music.
MacGill’s revelation comes at a time when Australian cricket is once again facing questions over the infamous 2018 Sandpapergate scandal following claims made by former Australia opener Usman Khawaja in his new autobiography, Sabr.
The 44-Test veteran, who represented Australia between 1998 and 2008, explained how he would attach a small piece of sandpaper to his thumb and use it to scratch the ball during a break in play. He also suggested that, during his playing days, such practices were not viewed in the same way as a major organised cheating operation.
Stuart MacGill reveals how he used sandpaper on cricket ball
During the conversation, MacGill interrupted O’Keefe and Henriques as they discussed different methods of altering the condition of the ball. He then opened up about his own experience and described how he used sandpaper during matches.
“I’d cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to my thumb. 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),” MacGill said.
Explaining the method, the former spinner said umpires would sometimes leave the ball near the boundary before players returned to the field after a break. He would use that opportunity to scratch the ball before removing the sandpaper.
“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,” he added.
MacGill also recalled experimenting with other methods, including sewing a piece of sandpaper into his trousers. He further spoke about a team experimenting with freezing the match ball to see how it affected its condition.
MacGill says Ball-Tampering was common during his playing days
The former Australia spinner also suggested that attempts to alter the condition of the ball had been part of cricket for a long time. He spoke about how players often viewed such practices as attempts to gain a competitive advantage, particularly when they believed opponents were doing something similar.
“It probably has been (ball tampering going on since the early days of Test cricket) because it’s just getting a competitive advantage, right? 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.
Usman Khawaja’s sandpapergate claims reignite debate
MacGill’s comments come amid renewed scrutiny of Australia’s 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. In his autobiography *Sabr*, Khawaja claimed that knowledge of the use of sandpaper extended beyond Cameron Bancroft, David Warner and Steve Smith, who were sanctioned following the Cape Town Test.
Khawaja alleged that the practice had also been discussed and used during the preceding Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth. He maintained that the entire team should take collective responsibility for what happened.
Warner has backed Khawaja’s account, while Mitchell Starc has reiterated that his recollection has not changed from the joint statement issued by Australia’s bowlers in 2021, which denied prior knowledge of the ball-tampering plan.
Cricket Australia has maintained that it remains comfortable with the findings of its original investigation. The governing body had concluded that prior knowledge of the Cape Town incident was limited to Smith, Warner and Bancroft.
