It’s more than three years since television cameras captured the unedifying image of Cameron Bancroft stuffing a piece of sandpaper down his pants in an effort to hide a ball-tampering scheme.
Now, there is a possibility a new investigation could be opened. Cricket Australia’s Integrity Unit has contacted Bancroft after the former Australian Test opener suggested at least some bowlers had knowledge of the Newlands ball tampering affair.
“We reached out to Cameron to extend that invitation to him and remind him about that opportunity, if he does have any new information in addition to what his input was into the original investigation, that there is an avenue for him to do that,” said CA’s Executive Manager of National Teams, Ben Oliver.
“And then likewise for others who, if they do feel as though they have new information, that that avenue is available to them to make contact directly with Cricket Australia and to discuss that.”
It’s an issue that simply won’t go away.
After the initial furore came the bans, emotional press conferences, an inquiry, a culture report, interviews, commentary, books, reintegration, redemption stories and a documentary series.
It should come as no surprise if people are sick of so-called ‘sandpapergate’.
Equally, it can hardly be a shock that the whole affair bubbles to the surface when the water has always been murky.
Bancroft’s interview in England with the Guardian’s Donald McRae, in which he implied the Australian bowlers were aware he was tampering with the ball, has scratched at a wound that was never properly treated and so has never fully healed.
And by not naming individuals specifically, Bancroft has inadvertently ensured the cloud of suspicion hangs over everyone who was in the squad.
“Yeah, look, all I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part,” Bancroft told The Guardian.
“Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory.”
When pressed on whether the bowlers knew, Bancroft repeated that it was “pretty probably self-explanatory.”
The truth was slippery from the post-play press conference at Newlands, attended by Bancroft and then-captain Steve Smith. The pair claimed the offending item was a piece of tape and Smith maintained the coaches didn’t know but the team leadership group had discussed the plan at lunch.
Soon the story shifted to implicate David Warner as the brains of the operation, with Bancroft as the sandpaper mule and Smith as a Sergeant Schultz figure; walking by and muttering, “I know nothing”, when he was all too aware.
Cricket Australia’s inquiry, led by Iain Roy, named these three as the culprits, although it was eventually revealed that Roy didn’t interview all the players which, even now, seems ludicrously inadequate and begs the question: why wouldn’t you question all of the key witnesses? It left CA open to suspicion that perhaps they didn’t want to know all the answers.
It’s worth noting many have moved on (or been forced out) from both the Test team management and CA administration, including coach Darren Lehmann, bowling coach David Saker, CEO James Sutherland, High Performance General Manager Pat Howard and CA Chair David Peever.
The problem for those now in charge is that too many people have never believed the official version. Responding to the Bancroft interview, former Test captain Michael Clarke accused CA of trying to “sweep it under the carpet”.
“They’ve got to hold the ball to bowl with it,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio Big Breakfast.
“So, if there’s sandpaper being rubbed on the ball they have to get the ball back to the bowler and the bowler has to hang on to it before he lets it go.”
Former Test vice-captain Adam Gilchrist also suggested CA’s investigation was lacking.
“There was an opportunity for CA if they were going to make such a strong statement they needed to do a more thorough investigation to work out where the root of the problem was,” Gilchrist said on SEN’s Gilly and Goss show.
“Anyone would be naive to think people were not aware with what was going on about ball maintenance. I don’t think Cricket Australia wanted to go there. They did not want to go any deeper than that superficial example of ball tampering.
“They did not investigate to see whether it was systemic, had it been going on and on and on. Around the cricketing globe it was widely accepted a lot of teams were doing it.’’
Gilchrist makes a valid point.
For decades, many teams have pushed the boundaries in ball maintenance; some have crossed into illegal territory, a few have been caught. None have faced the severity of the bans handed out to Smith, Warner and Bancroft.
It’s worth noting that between 2000 and 2018 there were 13 breaches of the ICC code; there have been none since June, 2018, a few months after the Newlands Test.
CA arguably backed themselves into a corner by punishing those three players so harshly while failing to satisfy all the remaining questions.
There was and is no incentive for any currently contracted player or employed coach to implicate themselves and it would create an uncomfortable situation for CA if they did. Retrospective penalties or bans could be seen as overly harsh and yet, if they weren’t forthcoming, confirm ‘the Newlands three’ as fall guys, sacrificed to protect the wider group.
It would be an unholy mess.
Saker’s comments to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age perhaps came the closest to an admission that some, at least, on the coaching staff were aware of what was happening.
“Obviously a lot of things went wrong at that time,” said Saker.
“The finger-pointing is going to go on and on and on. There was a lot of people to blame. It could have been me to blame, it could have been someone else. It could have been stopped and it wasn’t, which is unfortunate.
“Cameron’s a very nice guy. He’s just doing it to get something off his chest...he’s not going to be the last. You could point your finger at me, you could point your finger at Boof [Lehmann], could you point it at other people? Of course you could.
“The disappointing thing is it’s never going to go away. Regardless of what’s said. We all know that we made a monumental mistake. The gravity wasn’t as plain until it all came out.”
Except it hasn’t all come out and therein lies the problem.
Oliver said CA has not approached Saker about his comments which leaves the ball, and undoubtedly significant pressure, in Bancroft’s court.
CA could, of course, take the decision out of his hands and open a new investigation, in which they speak to all of the relevant players and coaches. They could offer an amnesty on bans in order to encourage openness.
That may be unfair on those who were punished or seem pointless after so much time has passed. And, with Smith and Warner now back in the fold, there may be no appetite to revisit such an ugly time.
But it might also finally rip the bandaid off a sandpaper wound that will, undoubtedly, continue to fester for as long as suspicion remains.
