Usman Khawaja has said a promise to his childhood friend and long-time opening partner David Warner was a major motivating factor behind revealing what he knows about the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, adding that he twice previously wanted to go public but was initially talked down by Steven Smith and then felt unable to say anything after the statement by the bowlers in 2021.
Following his interview with Nine newspapers ahead of the publication of his autobiography Sabr on Tuesday, and further extracts which have run in News Corp outlets, Khawaja posted two videos on Instagram on Sunday defending what he has written and reiterating that the blame should be shared beyond Warner, Smith and Cameron Bancroft.
"I haven't thrown anyone under the bus," Khawaja said. "The guys that are currently in the team right now and the other people that were there on the South African tour, including me, we're not the victims. These three guys took the blame for all of us. They're the victims. People telling them that they're cheats, getting nailed by the crowd, public humiliation.
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"I made a promise to my childhood friend David Warner that I would tell the truth, so he could tell a story," Khawaja added. "I'm absolutely 100 percent unapologetic for that. I stuck up for all cricketers in the past through the ACA, fighting for what I thought was right. This is no different.
"These three guys deserve justice, and I haven't pointed fingers at anyone. I'm still searching for what I was searching all those years ago. For us, me included, to take the blame together as a team, so we can all move on from this once and for all. You know what? I would do it again in a heartbeat."
At the beginning of his first video on Sunday, Khawaja said his statement that "it was all of us" was in reference to the entire team being responsible for what took place although added he would not deny that everyone knew. "I never speak on behalf of anyone else in my book," he said.
Khawaja explained that in the aftermath of the Cape Town Test in 2018 when the sanctions had been handed out to Smith, Warner and Bancroft he wanted to "come clean in the media" about what had taken place.
"Smudge [Smith] being the man and leader he was talked me out of it," Khawaja said. "He wanted to take the blame. I argued with him, but he was having none of it. That's the first time I tried to come out."
Khawaja also revealed that he had made another attempt for collective responsibility after Bancroft's infamous 2021 interview to the Guardian where he said it was "self explanatory" that the bowlers would have known what had gone in South Africa.
However, he felt it was impossible for him to say anything publicly once the bowlers issued their joint statement. "This really p**sed me off but not as much as it p**sed Davy off,'' Khawaja wrote in an extract published by News Corp. "I got some pretty heated texts that night. I'm not sure about Smudge [Smith] but I'm sure he wasn't thrilled."
On Instagram, he added: "I wasn't going to go to war with those guys back then. I just wasn't comfortable. That's the truth.
"So then you ask, why didn't I say anything in those four years while I was still playing? You know what, I never wanted to be the first guy to chat about this. Call me a chicken or whatever you want. I didn't know how to do it because I was still in the team. How was I ever supposed to bring this up when I knew some of my team-mates didn't want to talk about it? I knew everything I did or said always influenced and affected the team.
"I was always conscious of putting my team first, but I'm not in that team more. What I say now isn't a reflection of them any more. Now my words don't influence the team at all. I speak for myself."