With the times are running, there are new controversies are rising in the ongoing four-match Test series between the hosts South Africa and Australia. Now, Australian cricketer, Cameron Bancroft enters into the latest controversy with the serious ball-tampering charge.
On the day 3 of the third Test between South Africa and Australia at Cape Town, Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was seen to damage the ball during South Africa’s second innings.
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In the video footage, it was clearly seen that Bancroft was rubbing on the ball with his right hand and then putting that hand into the right pant pocket. In the latter part of the video footage, it was seen that Bancroft was moving some yellow square things from his right pant pocket to inside the trouser. According to some report, that thing could be a sandpaper.
Here is that video:
Oh no ! Bancroft. Very embarrassing. From the looks of it, this is not on. Haven't seen a series marred by controversies like this one in a long long time. The Cricket has been great, but this .. #SAvAUS pic.twitter.com/2uNhxtBXTv
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) March 24, 2018
In the immediate action, the on-field umpires had a look on the ball. They also called Aussie skipper Steven Smith along with Bancroft. While Bancroft was asked about the incident, he brought out a soft black sunglasses case from his right pant pocket.
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In the end, the umpires neither changed the ball nor awarded five-penalty runs in the South African innings.
In the post-day press conference, Steven Smith and Cameron Bancroft both have admitted the ball tampering incident.
Bancroft mentioned that it was a yellow tape and further quoted, “I saw an opportunity to use some tape, get some granules from the rough patches on the wicket and try to change the ball condition. It didn’t work; the umpires didn’t change the ball. But once I was sighted on the screens and having done that, that resulted in me shoving it down my trousers.”
Meanwhile, skipper Smith admitted that they knew about that. He said, “The leadership group knew about it. We spoke about it at lunch. I’m not proud of what’s happened. It’s not within the spirit of the game. My integrity, the team’s integrity, the leadership group’s integrity has come into question and rightfully so. It’s certainly not on and it won’t happen again, I can promise you that, under my leadership.”
Though Smith has not cleared yet that who were in that leadership group, he claimed that the head coach Darren Lehman had not any kind of role in that incident.
While Bancroft will surely receive a huge level of punishment, Steven Smith will also to be handed some serious penalty. In the addition, few more Australian senior cricketers can face charges on this incident. ICC will confirm about the all charges on Sunday.
