Cheating Aussies hit a sticky patch
The tale of the tape dominates the third test at Newlands
● This was a cricket match and nothing else for almost two sessions yesterday. But this series refuses to be about cricket.
There were runs. There were wickets. Beer was drunk. Jackets were zipped against the autumn breeze. Grown men roamed the place wearing diapers.
But, five overs before tea, the umpires, Nigel Long and Richard Illingworth, called Cameron Bancroft over for a chat.
What’s that in your pocket, son? they might have asked.
Play resumed, and when bad light hastened stumps by 13 overs South Africa were 238/5 — a lead of 294 — after three days of the third test.
If only that had been that. Instead television footage shows Bancroft holding the ball in his left hand, rubbing the rougher of its two halves with his right, and then putting his right hand into his trouser pocket.
As the umpires call him over Bancroft appears to take a small yellow object from his right-hand pocket, pull the waistband of his whites away from his midriff, and drop the thing into his underwear.
It looks, damningly, like he is disposing of the evidence where the sun don’t shine.
Bancroft came clean after play: “I saw an opportunity to use some [sticking] tape, get some granules from the rough patches on the wicket and try to change the ball condition.”
We’ve had altercations on staircases. We’ve had more than a dozen people thrown
Being the leader ... I’m sorry for ... trying to bring the game into disrepute Steve Smith Australian captain
out of Newlands for boorish behaviour, and another for stealing cellphones. We’ve had women denigrated. We’ve had men reveal that after eons of evolution their knuckles still drag in the dust.
Now we have cheating.
And an astonishing admission from Steve Smith: “I’m not proud of what’s happened. It’s not within the spirit of the game.
“My integrity, the team’s integrity, the leadership group’s integrity has come into question and rightfully so. It’s certainly not on and it won’t happen again, I can promise you that, under my leadership.”
Smith blamed the “leadership group” for hatching the plot and roping Bancroft, the most junior member of their team, into it.
That must include Smith and his vicecaptain, David Warner, along with, presumably, senior players like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood and, perhaps, Nathan Lyon.
Smith denied the coaching staff, headed by Darren Lehmann, were in on the deal, claimed it was the first time ball-tampering had happened under his watch, and said he wasn’t considering resigning the captaincy.
“I’m embarrassed,” Smith said. “I know the boys in the sheds are embarrassed as well. It’s not what we want to see in the game. It’s not what the Australian cricket team’s about.
“Being the leader of the team I’m incredibly sorry for, I guess, trying to bring the game into disrepute the way that we did today.”
Would he be quite so sorry if he hadn’t been exposed?
“I think, deep down, yeah, I would. It’s a poor reflection on everyone in that dressingroom. So, yeah, if we weren’t caught I’d still feel incredibly bad about it.”
A contrite Bancroft said: “I want to be here because I’m accountable for my actions as well.
“I’ve got to live with the consequences and the damage to my own reputation that that comes with.”