Chadd Sayers, who was part of Australia's squad on the 2018 tour of South Africa, has contradicted some of Pat Cummins' main denials of Usman Khawaja's claims around sandpapergate, saying he believes "everyone" knew and that he recalls a "60-90 minute" team meeting in Cape Town where the idea of taking collective responsibility was discussed.
Sayers played his one and only Test in Johannesburg on that tour, in the immediate aftermath of the ball-tampering, when he replaced an injured Mitchell Starc for the final match of the series. His recollections backed up the claims that Khawaja made in his book, while he also added that - as 12th man - he had been given the sandpaper to remove from the field at Port Elizabeth, which was handed to him by Cameron Bancroft.
"I'm comfortable sitting here right now, and where I stand on the situation, that I believe that everyone in that side knew what was going on and what was being used," Sayers told SEN radio ahead of the second ODI in Adelaide.
"I think I've probably been portrayed in the media as taking Usman's side because I've spoken out and acknowledged that that was probably the truth, but I'm neutral in all this. I'm just trying to tell my side of the story and what I believe happened."
When asked when he first became aware of the use of sandpaper, Sayers said: "In Port Elizabeth. As it's known now, it was used in two Test matches and there was discussions in the changing-rooms about how were we going to get the ball to reverse, and what was going to be used
"I just knew that it was going to be used, as I believe everyone else did. I guess the plan was that Cameron Bancroft was going to take that out, the ball was going to be dropped on the ground by the umpires and he was going to go about his business … [the sandpaper] was given to me to take off, so that wasn't planned or anything, I was just the player who took the drinks out at the time."
In a key recollection that goes against Cummins' claims on Friday, that he did not recall any team meetings over taking collective responsibility, Sayers said there was a lengthy discussion on what should be done next.
"After the occurrence in Cape Town we all sat in the change-rooms after that day's play, probably for 60 to 90 minutes, and just talked about what had happened and guess where to next," he said.
He added that he "vaguely" recalled the two players that Khawaja had written about, who did not want a collective stance on the ball-tampering, but he added he would not be naming them.
Sayers also added his view to the theory that it would be very hard for the bowlers not to know what was going on. "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. So, yeah, as I said, I'm pretty confident to say that everyone knew."
During Cummins' 68-minute press conference he said that, if Khawaja was claiming everyone knew about sandpaper being used, that he was "100% wrong". He accused Khawaja of being "casual with each other's lives and reputations".
Sayers only watched the start of Cummins' press conference but said "he didn't like how he did go at Usman".
Sayers' comments came shortly after David Warner had returned to social media to follow-up on his claims of a Cricket Australia "cover-up" in the initial 2018 investigation. Having said on Saturday that he was not aware of Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc being interviewed, he switched tack slightly by suggesting that, if they were, he had not been provided with all the evidence.
"Just to clarify 'As far as I am aware' was the POINT," he wrote on Instagram. "I was never told the bowlers had been interviewed or provided statements. That information would've been pretty useful when I was forced to make decisions back in 2018. Why weren't we given all the evidence by CA?"
Warner had previously described CA's investigation into the sandpaper scandal in South Africa as "botched".
AAP contributed to this report