Cricket Australia chairman David Boon has backed Test captain Pat Cummins and said his job is not under threat over the claims in Usman Khawaja's book about the 2018 ball-tampering affair.

Boon said Cricket Australia had full confidence in Cummins' leadership, describing him as a player of integrity, after Khawaja's claims reopened old wounds and brought fresh calls for another investigation into the scandal known as Sandpapergate.

"We absolutely support Pat"

"We absolutely support Pat," Boon said in comments published by The Australian on Thursday. "He's been an exemplary captain, he's led the team with integrity and, you know, very successfully over the period of time that he's been captain, so there's no question of our confidence in him continuing on in that fact."

Khawaja wrote in his autobiography, "Sabr", released this week, that the whole Australian team on the 2018 tour of South Africa had prior knowledge of a plan to manipulate the ball, and that ball-tampering had taken place in the second Test in Port Elizabeth, not only in the third Test in Cape Town.

No new investigation

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg said on Tuesday there was no compelling reason to reopen the case, and Boon repeated that position. "I respect (Usman's) point of view and his recollections of what occurred, and they're his, but we don't want to get into a he-said-she-said argument," Boon said. "There are going to be supporters, there's going to be other guys that don't recollect the same thing, so I don't see a purpose."

Khawaja's claims were backed by former team-mate David Warner, who was banned for his part in the Cape Town scandal along with Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft.

Former Australia batting coach Graeme Hick dismissed Khawaja's remarks as "absolutely false", and fast bowler Mitchell Starc denied on Tuesday that he had any prior knowledge of ball-tampering. Starc, Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon issued a joint statement in 2021 saying they did not know a foreign substance had been taken onto the field to manipulate the ball in Cape Town.

Cummins to speak on Friday

Cummins has yet to respond in full to Khawaja's claims, but posted on X that he would be happy to speak to the media on Friday. "I've taken some time to try and better understand the long list and full extent of Uzzy's allegations so I can respond properly," he wrote.

Source: Reuters and CODE Sports.