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Sports136 words1 min read

Cummins Responds to Khawaja's 'Sandpapergate' Claims

The open hood of a yellow truck revealing a red Cummins engine and complex wiring
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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

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Quiz

1. Who is Pat Cummins?
2. What is 'sandpapergate' about?
3. True or false: Cummins said there was a proper way to handle the incident.

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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.

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