- Australian batter Cameron Bancroft was seen tampering with a ball using a foreign object
- Steve Smith and David Warner were found guilty of planning to change the ball
- The two were given a year-long ban while Bancroft was banned for nine months
This day is probably known as one of the darkest days in the history of Australian cricket. On 24th March 2018, three Australian players were found guilty of tampering with the ball while the team was touring South Africa. Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner were found involved in the case.
It happened during the third day of the Cape Town test in South Africa during lunch break. Bancroft was seen holding the ball and rubbing it with a yellowish object on the side opposite of what is rubbed on the trousers. Coincidently the camera was pointing at him when he was tampering with the ball. He immediately put the object down his trousers in order to hide it. The batter further told that he did it in an attempt to make the ball more reversible.
While speculations immediately started to make round and questions were raised as to what happened during a lunch break but eventually, the day carried on, on its usual, but serious discussions happened after the day was over.
25-year-old Bancroft told the press after the day, “I had discussions with the match officials, I’ve been charged with attempting to change the condition of the ball. We had a discussion during the [lunch] break and I saw an opportunity to use some tape, get some granules from the rough patches on the wickets and change the condition, it didn’t work, the umpires didn’t change the ball. I was sighted on the screen and that resulted in me shoving it down my trousers.”
On further investigation and on the suggestions of many the Australian team leadership was asked about the incident where Steve Smith the then captain admitted to having known and planning the tampering process days ahead
“The leadership group knew about it. We spoke about it at lunch,” he said. “I am not proud of what’s happened. It’s not within the spirit of the game. My integrity, the team’s integrity and the leadership group’s integrity have come into question. It won’t happen again,”
Steve and David Warner, who was the vice-captain apologized and regretted having done what they did with the ball. Both of them stepped down from their respective positions on day four. The two were handed a year ban from all sorts of cricket while Bancroft was suspended for nine months. South Africa went on to win with a huge margin.
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