Suspended Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft, who actually tried to change the ball condition, is feeling sorry for his action and he admitted that he lied about the sandpaper.
The ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town Test hit heavily the Australian cricket. In the result, while skipper Steven Smith and vice-captain David Warner have been handed one year ban by the Cricket Australia (CA) for giving instruction to conduct that incident, Bancroft has received nine months banned from international and domestic cricket.
In the addition, Smith and Bancroft will have to wait one more year after the end of their suspensions to able for leading the national side once again, while Warner will never be able to lead the national side again.
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The 25-years old Australian opening batsman is feeling very sad for that incident and has regret on it. He said, “I want to say that I’m very sorry … I’m very disappointed and I regret my actions … It is something I will regret for the rest of my life. All I can do is ask for forgiveness … I will do my best to contribute to the community”
After that ball-tampering incident, Bancroft had said in the press conference that he tried to change the ball condition through the sticky yellow tape. However, CA investigation revealed that Bancroft used the yellow sandpaper during that incident.
Bancroft has now admitted that he lied about the sandpaper. He quoted, “I lied. I lied about the sandpaper. I panicked in that situation and I’m very sorry … I feel like I’ve let everyone down in Australia. The thing that breaks my heart the most is that I’ve given up my spot in the team for free. People know I worked so hard to get to this point in my career and to have given up that chance for free is devastating.”
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Recently during the ball-tampering investigation, a video has been broken out, where Bancroft was putting a spoon of sugar in his pocket during the 2017/18 Ashes series. Some cricketing experts claimed that Bancroft did that to make ball-tampering.
However, Bancroft claimed that he had never involved in the ball-tampering incident before the Cape Town Test.
He said on that, “I have never ever been involved in tampering with the ball (before now) and it clearly compromises my values and what I stand for as a player and as a person. It’s so big because the action of doing it is completely wrong. For me to carry that out in front of world cricket and to be seen breaking the laws of the game, not playing within the spirit of the game, it’s completely how cricket shouldn’t be played.”
Bancroft also said that it is going to be a long road for him to earn the respect back. He told, “It’s going to be a really long road particularly for myself to earn that respect back but for me, that’s the most important thing.”
