Cricket News

Former Australia captain accuses South Africa of ball tampering after the Cape Town Test

Former Australian skipper Tim Paine has opened up some old wounds. He has accused South Africa of ball tampering in the Test match that succeeded the Newlands game in 2018, which saw the sandpaper gate scandal come to light. He made these comments in his autobiography “The Price Paid” which was released on Tuesday.

Following the scandal, Cricket Australia handed out suspensions to David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, and former Australian captain Steve Smith after Bancroft was caught on camera with sandpaper on the field in the Cape Town Test of the South Africa Tour.

Now, Paine said that he had observed South Africa ball tampering in the next Test match which was played at Johannesburg. Here is what he said to say on the incident: “Think about that. After everything that had happened in Cape Town, after all the headlines and bans and carry on,” he said

“I was standing at the bowlers’ end in the next test when a shot came up on the screen of a South African player at mid-off having a huge crack at the ball.”

“We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a bit poor, but we’d been slaughtered and were convinced they’d been up to it since the first test,” he wrote. “But the footage got lost. As it would.”

Everyone was part of the ball-tampering scandal in 2018– Tim Paine

Cricket South Africa and the team were unable to provide any immediate comments on the matter on Tuesday. CA had sanctioned the players. There was a buzz about whether the other team members could also be involved.

In what are two different versions, Bancroft said that it was an implicit understanding that the bowlers had to be aware of ball tampering, but the bowlers have denied having any knowledge of the incident whatsoever.

Paine disapproved that the tampering idea was known to all the players and further said that the team should have taken responsibility for the incident as a unit rather than blame the three players entirely.

“Everyone was a part of it to some degree – would it have worked out better for those three players if we had owned it as a team? I think it would have,” he said. CA did not provide immediate comment when contacted on Tuesday about the incident.