In an extraordinary news conference after South Africa opened up a potentially match-winning lead on day three of the third Test against Australia on Saturday, Australian captain Steve Smith and batsman Cameron Bancroft confessed to a plan to use sand stuck to tape to alter the condition of the ball in an effort to produce more swing.
This came to light after Bancroft, the most junior member of the side and the player tasked with carrying out the plan, was caught on camera rubbing a yellow object against the ball.
He was then shown hastily putting the object down the front of his trousers before speaking to on-field umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, who had been alerted to the suspicious behaviour.
Bancroft turned out his pockets and showed the umpires a black piece of cloth before play continued and the hosts tightened their hold on the match.
Bancroft has been charged with a Level Two offence by the International Cricket Council, but whether Smith will face any sanction after admitting to hatching the plot along with the team’s “leadership group” remains to be seen.
The ICC announced its intention to charge Bancroft at the close of play and he faces a maximum punishment of a 100 percent fine of his match fee and four demerit points, which would trigger an automatic one-match ban.
“I’m embarrassed, the boys in the shed are embarrassed and I feel for Cam as well,” Smith told reporters. “It is not what we want to see in the game, it’s not what the Australian cricket team is about. Being the leader of the team I am incredibly sorry for trying to bring the game into disrepute like we did today.”
Cricket Australia Orders Probe
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland called a media conference in Melbourne on Sunday, 25 March, where they said they will conduct an investigation into the ball-tampering scandal which is an “extremely serious issue”.
“Activities on the field in Cape Town were neither in the spirit or the laws of the game. For us that's extremely disappointing.”
The board also said it will not rule on Steve Smith's future as captain until it completes a probe into the incident.
“He is currently the captain of the Australian team. We are working through a process and once we have a clearer picture of the facts and understand things once (CA head of integrity) Iain (Roy) submits his report we will be in a better position to make further comment”, Sutherland told reporters in front of a huge media scrum outside the Melbourne offices of Cricket Australia (CA).
Sutherland described it as “very sad for Australian cricket” and said fans had “every reason to wake up and not be proud of the Australian cricket team”.
However, the CEO declined to call the ball-tampering “cheating” and steered studiously clear of using the word.
“Look, I think it’s pretty clear that ICC match referee has made a charge,” Sutherland said. “A player (Bancroft) has admitted to that... I'll make a judgement on that in the next couple of days.”
Prominent Australian cricket writer Gideon Haigh dismissed Sutherland's response as one from a “quintessential bureaucrat”.
“It doesn't ring true, it doesn't resonate with the public,” Haigh told local broadcaster ABC. “We actually expect of Australian cricketers behaviour that we do not expect of players in other (sporting) codes.”
Cricketers React to ‘SandpaperGate’
Former players and pundits have demanded Steve Smith give up the Australia cricket captaincy for “blatant cheating” in the wake of the ball-tampering revelations. Smith took responsibility for the plan orchestrated by senior players but said on Saturday he would not step down as captain.
Australian former test bowler Rodney Hogg said Smith could not continue in his role as skipper.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan hit out at the decision to use 25-year-old opening batsman Bancroft, the youngest player in the side, to carry out the plan.
Former captain Allan Border said it was a “a bad look for Australian cricket”.
Michael Clarke, Smith's predecessor as captain, said the revelations were “disgraceful” and that he had no doubt that the skipper would be “crying in his hotel room”.
“I can't believe the senior players have made a decision to do that,” he told Australian television. “It's disgraceful and it's not accepted by anyone.”
Clarke himself retired back in 2015 but has hinted that he could consider making an international cricket comeback, if the management needed him to do so.
“If I was asked by right people, then I would think about my answer,” Clarke said on Channel Nine's Sports Sunday.
Australian newspapers described the scandal as the worst captaincy crisis since 1981 when skipper Greg Chappell instructed his younger brother to bowl underarm with the last ball in a one-day match against New Zealand.
Fairfax Media's chief sports reporter, Chris Barrett said that as captain Smith may have to pay a high price.
“What took place at the foot of Table Mountain was dumb and deplorable in equal measure," wrote Barrett. “In the case of Smith, he should have known better... The mistake may cost him very dearly.”
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