The year 2018 started on a decent note for Australia as they regained the Ashes but in a matter of a few months, the feel-good factor vaporized when the ball-tampering scandal unfolded in Cape Town against South Africa. Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft were handed bans for trying to change the condition of the ball in the Cape Town Test in March. One year after the incident, current Test skipper, Tim Paine gave his insights regarding the way in which the Kangaroos dealt with the huge blow and how they plan to move ahead in an action-packed cricketing calendar.
Talking to Cricbuzz recently, Paine stated that the entire fiasco was a massive disappointment for the Aussies, he said, “I haven’t thought about it a lot. It was disappointing for all of us involved. I think you’ve got to keep looking forward. You can’t keep worrying about the past.”
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Describing the point further, the Test skipper said that the Australian team made a commitment to themselves as a group, and as a team, they want to improve and at the same time, they don’t want to do things like that ever again. Paine also acknowledged that they want to play good cricket in order to make the Australians proud.
When asked about the ban of Warner, Smith, and Bancroft getting over, Paine replied, “We are really looking forward to getting those guys (Steve Smith, David Warner, and Cameron Bancroft) back in around our team, and I think when that happens, we can completely sort of start to move forward. There’s always been that sort of in the background, where we’re trying to move forward but we know that these guys are going to be back at some stage. So it’ll be great when they actually are back, and we can all look into the future.”
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Recalling the day when Paine was appointed as the skipper, he termed it as ‘surreal’, but at the same time, he acknowledged that he didn’t enjoyed it. He also said that now he has started enjoying it.
