Former Australian world-cup winning captain Michael Clarke slammed the Australian leadership group for conducting the on-field ball-tampering incident. Clarke mentioned that as a premeditated cheating, blatant cheating and disgraceful action.
On the day 3 of the ongoing third Test between the hosts South Africa and Australia at Cape Town, Cameron Bancroft deliberately tried to change the ball condition through a yellow tape. Though he claimed that it didn’t work as the umpires also continued the match with the same ball and not awarded five-penalty runs for South Africa after observing that ball condition.
In the post-day press conference, while Bancroft admitted his action, Australian skipper Steven Smith confessed that the ‘leadership group’ knew about that.
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Talking about that, former Australian captain Michael Clarke told Channel Nine on Sunday morning, “It’s premeditated cheating. It’s blatant cheating, it’s disgraceful, it’s not accepted by anyone. And particularly in Australia, we have the best bowling attack in the world… wouldn’t need to cheat to beat anybody.”
Clarke also slammed the leadership group for making a scar on 25-years old Bancroft’s cricketing career. Clarke said, “Cameron Bancroft, it’s his eighth Test match. I can’t believe the leadership group has made a decision to do this. They’ve gone and got the young kid who’s played his eighth Test match to do that.
The former right-handed Australian batsman also spoke about the Australian skipper Steven Smith. He said, “As a leader, you can’t ask somebody to do something that you’re not willing to do yourself. Steve Smith is such a lovely guy. You can see there that he’s just shattered. I really feel shattered for him.”
On Sunday morning, Steven Smith stepped down from the leadership role while David Warner also resigned from the vice-captain role. Tim Paine is leading the Australian side in the remaining third Test, while Smith and Warner will play in this match under Paine’s leadership.
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Earlier, in the morning, when Clarke was asked whether Smith should be removed from the captaincy or not, he denied giving any answer on that. He said, “I don’t think it is fair for me to answer that question right now. I’m too emotional, I’m just going on footage that I’ve seen. I haven’t spoken to any players, I haven’t spoken to the Australian captain. I think I would need to do a lot more groundwork before I could make that decision.
However, Clarke also added that it is not a good image for the leadership group. He said, “I can guarantee you that this is not a good look for the leadership group.”
Clarke also mentioned that the Australian captains’ power has been reduced in last four or five years. He said on that, “This has always been my gripe with Australian cricket in the last, let’s say four or five years. I think our structure has changed. When I grew up watching cricket, the captain was in charge of the Australian cricket team, always… Mark Taylor’s team, Allan Border’s team, Steve Waugh’s team.
“Halfway through my captaincy, this changed (CA) brought in a head coach, a high-performance manager, so then you’ve got the Board, CEO, high-performance manager, head coach, chairman of selectors and (then the) captain. So that blurs accountability.”
