The ball-tampering incident in the Cape Town Test in last March has carried much crisis in the Australian cricket team along with the huge criticisms. Now, the Australian cricketer Peter Handscomb has opened up that incident and claimed that he was not involved in that incident and the video with his relation was edited.
While the opener Cameron Bancroft involved directly in the Cape Town Test sandpaper incident under the instructions of then captain Steven Smith and vice-captain David Warner, Handscomb wasn’t directly involved in that matter as he wasn’t even in the playing XI. However, according to a video footage in that period, then head coach Darren Lehmann spotted to instruct something to Peter Handscomb over the walkie-talkie. Soon in the next footage, Handscomb was seen on the field with Bancroft after which the young opener was caught to hide the yellow sandpaper inside his pant.
The media reports have believed that Handscomb might inform something to Bancroft about his earlier ball-tampering incident and later Bancroft scared on it and tried to hide it by shifting inside his pant.
However, Handscomb has recently claimed that he wasn’t involved in that case and the two video footages had a time gap of 20-25 minutes. After that incident, it is the first time when Handscomb has opened up that incident in front of the public.
The 27-year-old said, “I love that footage because it’s actually amazing how much the media edited it. So, it shows me on the walkie-talkie then running out and talking to Cam (Bancroft). What happened, I am on the walkie-talkie. Twenty minutes, 25 minutes later, a player comes off because they need to go to the bathroom. I am next to it so that’s why I come on.”
Also read: Danushka Gunathilaka Receives A Ban Of Six Matches
“I get put into a catching position next to Cam because we are both short catches… we are front of the wicket catchers or in slips together. That’s why I was there, literally just trying to have a joke with him. There was nothing else. All this build-up about me trying to do something there, it wasn’t there.”
Handscomb further claimed that he has been dragged into this scandal where he hadn’t involved in any part of that incident.
He said, “I haven’t been dragged into it [the scandal] that much. If I was, I am basically off a lot of social media now anyway. I didn’t read it and I didn’t hear it.”
In the result of that incident, Bancroft has been suspended for nine-months and Smith and Warner both have been suspended for one-year each from the international and domestic cricket by Cricket Australia (CA).
Also read: David Warner is desperate to return to the Australian cricket team
Though Handscomb hasn’t faced any charges on that incident, he wasn’t happy on the way he got an opportunity to come back in the Test team.
The wicketkeeper-batsman said, “It was a bit of a shame to come back into the Test side under those circumstances – I had really wanted to get back in through sheer work and put numbers on the board and make sure I was doing all the right things. Sometimes it’s right place, right time, and I have to try and take that opportunity.”
He played the next game in the fourth Test between South Africa and Australia at Johannesburg but disappointed with his performances as he scored 0 and 24 respectively in that game.
Also read: Eng vs Ind: Dale Steyn Puts His Money On England
Now he will get an opportunity when Australia A will tour in India to play two four-day games and List A quadrangular series where India A, India B and South Africa A will also participate. The right-handed batsman is confident to make it count this opportunity.
Handscomb said, “It [national selection] seems to be a bit open slather – you are going into this [A tour], if you make runs you are a massive chance and, if you don’t, you haven’t taken that opportunity they are trying to give you. I feel like I am a really good player of spin and I hope I will go over there and make runs. I have done that before on the subcontinent, so I hope I can do that again.”
