Australian opener Usman Khawaja has claimed that ball tampering was common in Sheffield Shield cricket, with Victoria particularly skilled at generating reverse swing. The veteran batter has made the revelations in his upcoming autobiography, Sabr, which is set for public release.

Khawaja's latest comments follow his controversial claims about the 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, in which he alleged that Australian players and support staff knew about the team's actions. He has also faced criticism for waiting eight years to reveal the information.

'The Victorians Were Probably the Best at It' - Usman Khawaja on Ball Tampering

In excerpts from Sabr, Usman Khawaja described Victoria's players from the 2000s and 2010s as particularly skilled at altering the condition of the ball. He explained that the Melbourne Cricket Ground often offered little assistance to bowlers, making reverse swing and spin crucial to winning matches.

"The Victorians were probably the best at it. The MCG used to be dead and flat. Reverse swing and a bit of spin was the only way you could win a game there," Khawaja wrote.

"The Victorians of that 2000s and 2010s era were genius at it. Throwing it into the wicket and doing other dark arts to rough it up and make the shiny side relatively shinier. It was all fair game."

"It was no surprise when, years later, Victoria's bowling coach, Micky Lewis, was caught on cameras scraping the ball in the gutter when it got hit for a boundary. This kind of stuff was very normal," Khawaja wrote.

'One of the Players Had Super Glue on His Towel' - Usman Khawaja Reveals Bizarre Method

Usman Khawaja also described an unusual ball-tampering method he witnessed during his first season in Sheffield Shield cricket. He claimed that an unnamed player used dried super glue on a towel to rough up the ball and help generate reverse swing.

"One of the players had super glue on his towel. He'd get the ball on the rough side and scrub it against the dried-up super glue. It worked a treat and the ball would always reverse," Khawaja revealed.

"I personally never tampered with a ball — in terms of scratching it or anything — but I knew everything that was going on and I wasn't against it which made me complicit," Khawaja wrote.

Darren Lehmann Backs Usman Khawaja's Claims About Ball Tampering in Cricket

Usman Khawaja's revelations about the prevalence of ball tampering in domestic cricket echo recent comments from former Australia head coach Darren Lehmann. Speaking on ABC Sport's Summer Grandstand, Lehmann said the practice had been part of cricket for generations before Australia's 2018 scandal.

"You do know ball tampering is going on because it's been happening for 150 years," Lehmann said.

"I can only speak to what I know, and I know ball tampering was a big part of the game of cricket. Now it is obsolete. That doesn't make it right either, but that's the case, and we paid a heavy price for that."

Khawaja has been promoting Sabr for the past two weeks, but the chapter containing his ball-tampering revelations was withheld until Saturday morning. He later defended the timing of his comments on social media, saying he did not feel he had thrown anyone "under the bus" with his revelations.