With the release of Usman Khawaja’s book Sabr nearby, there are a lot of skeletons tumbling out of Australian cricket’s closet. The southpaw has revealed several unknown facts in his book, with one carrying details of the players' involvement in the Sandpapergate scandal during the 2018 Cape Town Test vs South Africa. 

Wading into this, former Aussie leg-spinner Stuart MacGill, during a recent YouTube show with ex-international players Steve O'Keefe and Moises Henriques, also admitted to using the same during his playing career. 

The 55-year-old was quoted by News 18 as saying, “I would cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to my thumb. I wasn’t part of a massive global cheating scandal. I was just curious to see what would happen and if it all works, and it did work.”

MacGill explained how he pulled off the stunt without being noticed. “Umpires, as they were walking out to the ground, would throw the ball just 20 meters over the boundary ropes and leave it there. The players would run onto the field, pick the ball, and get on with it.”

“I would tape a bit of square of sandpaper on my thumb, pick the ball up after tea, and scratch the ball, pull the sandpaper off and chuck it in the gutter before a delivery was bowled. No one knew what I was doing, apart from a few scratches on the ball.”

Stuart MacGill’s cricket record

For the record, MacGill played 44 Tests and picked up 208 wickets. He got to play very few matches due to the presence of the great Shane Warne at that time. He took 12 fifers in his career to go along with the two ten-fers.

The spinner also played three ODI games and claimed six wickets with a best of 4/19. New South Wales star also finished his domestic career with 774 First-class wickets and 193 List A wickets, as well as 13 scalps in the T20 format, seven of which came for Sydney Sixers in the inaugural Big Bash League season in 2011.