The disgraced Australian opener, Cameron Bancroft has revealed that it was David Warner encouraged him to affect the ball-tampering in Cape Town with the implicit approval of the former skipper Steven Smith, leading to a scandal that saw all three banned from the game while Cricket Australia dealt with a host of cultural consequences.
Talking about it further, Bancroft said that he had accepted Warner’s advice because he “just wanted to fit in and feel valued” in the team. Talking to Fox Sports, he explained, “Dave [Warner] suggested to me to carry the action out on the ball has given the situation we were in in the game and I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know any better because I just wanted to fit in and feel valued, really — as simple as that. The decision was based around my values, what I valued at the time and I valued fitting in … you hope that fitting in earns you respect and with that, I guess, there came a pretty big cost for the mistake.”
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He further added, “I would have gone to bed and I would have felt like I had let everybody down. I would have felt like I had let the team down. I would have left like I had hurt our chances to win the game of cricket. I take no other responsibility but the responsibility I have on myself and my own actions because I am not a victim. I had a choice and I made a massive mistake and that is what is in my control.”
Having been banned by Cricket Australia (CA) for nine-months as opposed to the one-year penalties given to Warner and Smith, Bancroft will be making his return to the domestic cricket during the Big Bash League (BBL) match between Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes in Launceston on December 30.
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During his banned days, Cameron got himself involved with yoga and played club cricket in The Northern Territory and also his hometown of Perth. Towards the end of his ban, he said that the cultural lessons of Cape Town and the subsequent Longstaff and McCosker cultural reviews would be lost on CA as an organization if the governing body was not as honest and self-critical as he had been compelled to be.
Describing the same, Bancroft said, “The reason why it was painful is that the truth hurts. Maybe in that review, there were some truths that were pretty hard to accept. Only Cricket Australia will know if they are being true to themselves, to be able to own up to some of those recommendations. If they can look at themselves in the mirror and be really content and be really peaceful, and proud of the direction they’re going, that’s OK. It will present itself in the face to you and you’ll have to learn another lesson.”
