Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has said that no one is surprised to know that more than three people knew about the infamous ball-tampering scandal. His comments came as Cricket Australia (CA) on Saturday shared that they are open to reinvestigate the ‘Sandpaper Gate’ case if there is anyone who has more knowledge about the incident.
However, the board announced that after the opener Cameron Bancroft has given the hint that there might be a wider knowledge about the ball-tampering scandal during the ‘Sandpaper Gate’ incident that happened in 2018 in the Cape Town Test between Australia and South Africa rather than Steve Smith, David Warner and the opener himself as well.
While speaking on Sky Sports’ Big Sports Breakfast, Clarke said: “They’ve got to hold the ball to bowl with it. I can tell you now if you went and grabbed a pen, just a pen and put a little ‘1’ somewhere on my cricket bat; on top of the handle, on the edge of the bat, on the toe of the bat, on the face, under the grip, anywhere, just a little number one, I would have noticed. If you are playing sport at the highest level you know your tools that good it’s not funny. Can you imagine that the ball being thrown back to the bowler and the bowler not knowing about it? Please,” he added.
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Michael Clarke further added: “I love how the articles in the paper are ‘it is such a big surprise that Cameron Bancroft has made a …’ Actually if you read his quotes it is not what he did say as what he didn’t say in regards to other people knowing about sandpaper gate.”
“What’s the surprise? That more than three people knew? I don’t think anybody who has played the game of cricket or knows a little bit about cricket would know that in a team like that, at the highest level, when the ball is such an important part of the game. I don’t think anybody is surprised that more than three people knew about it,” he again shared.
Notably, Bancroft was caught on camera while he was trying to change the condition of the ball using sandpaper during a Test match against South Africa in Cape Town. However, the incident was labelled as the ‘Sandpaper Gate’ and it was considered as one of the darkest incidents in the history of Australian cricket as well.
Meanwhile, Bancroft, who is currently playing county cricket in Durham, said that it was “probably self-explanatory” whether the bowlers knew that the ball was being tampered with as well.
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“Yeah, look, all I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part. Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers, and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory,” Bancroft shared to the Guardian interviewer Donald McRae as reported by ESPNcricinfo. “I guess one thing I learnt through the journey and being responsible is that’s where the buck stops [with Bancroft himself]. Had I had better awareness I would have made a much better decision.”
However, after the end of the day, Bancroft and the then captain Steve Smith admitted their action and later David Warner’s involvement in the scandal was also confirmed as well. Later, Australia lost the match and Steve Smith and David Warner were removed from their respective posts of the captain and vice-captain respectively. Along with this, they faced one-year bans as well whereas Bancroft was given a nine-month ban too.
