Cummins Responds to Khawaja's 'Sandpapergate' Claims
Listen to the story
Pat Cummins is the captain of the Australian cricket team. He spoke to reporters at a press conference.
He talked about claims in a new book. The book is by cricket player Usman Khawaja.
The book talks about an old cricket problem. People call it 'sandpapergate'. It happened in 2018.
In 2018, some Australian players used sandpaper on the ball. This is called ball-tampering. It is against the rules.
Cricket Australia looked into the problem after it happened. This is called an investigation.
Cummins said there was a right way to deal with the problem. He said Cricket Australia did the investigation the right way.
Cummins did not agree with everything in Khawaja's book. But he did not say much more about it.
The story is still new. More news may come soon.
Vocabulary15 words
- press conference
- a meeting where someone answers questions from reporters
- ball-tampering
- changing a ball in a way that is not allowed
- investigation
- a careful look into what happened
- captain
- the leader of a sports team
- claims
- things someone says are true
- scandal
- something bad that many people talk about
- reporters
- people who write news stories
- rules
- things you must follow
- incident
- something that happens, often bad
- proper
- right or correct
- handle
- to deal with something
- book
- pages with writing, put together
- team
- a group who play sport together
- agree
- to think the same as someone else
- old
- from a long time ago
📚 Ready to use these words in a real conversation?
Practice live with a real tutor on Preply.
Quiz
Answer key
1. The captain of the Australian cricket team 2. A ball-tampering incident in 2018 3. True
✅ Nice work on the quiz!
Keep the momentum going — book a live English lesson with a Preply tutor.
Fill-in-the-blank listening
Play the audio again and fill in the missing words as you listen.
Pat Cummins is the _____ of the Australian cricket team.
He spoke to reporters at a press _____.
He talked about claims in a new _____ by Usman Khawaja.
People call the old problem '_____'.
It happened in _____.
Some players used _____ on the ball in 2018.
This is against the _____.
Cricket Australia did an _____ after it happened.
Cummins said there was a proper way to _____ the problem.
He did not _____ with everything in the book.
More Sports stories
Next story · Easy
Trump Says Iran Deal Not Needed, Moves Vance Off Talks
