SPORT: How Fanie helped bust cheaters
TV cameramen tipped off to watch Aussies with ball before Bancroft footage captured
FORMER Proteas cricket player Fanie de Villiers tipped off the cameramen to be on the lookout for possible ball tampering in the third test between South Africa and Australia. “We actually said to our cameramen‚ ‘Go out. Have a look, boys. They are using something’. “It’s impossible for the ball to get altered like that on [a] cricket wicket where we knew there is a grass covering. It’s not a Pakistani wicket where there’s cracks every centimetre‚” De Villiers told Australian radio station RSN927.
“They searched for an hour and a half until they saw something and then they started following [Cameron] Bancroft.”
De Villiers said he had a suspicion the ball was being tampered with.
“I said earlier on‚ that if they can get reverse swing in the 26th‚ 27th‚ 28th over‚ then they are doing something different from what everyone else does‚” De Villiers said.
“With the Australian team getting reverse swing before the 30th over‚ they had to do something.
“I mean if you take a cricket ball and you scratch it against a normal iron or steel gate or anything with steel on it‚ it reverse swings immediately‚ because of the roughness.”
Australian captain Steve Smith admitted on Saturday that he and the rest of Australia’s “leadership group” had roped Bancroft into their plan to try and roughen the ball by rubbing it with sticking tape loaded with sand taken from the pitch.
Smith and Bancroft confessed after Bancroft was caught red-handed by television cameras before tea on day three of the third test at Newlands.
Smith and vice-captain David Warner stepped down from their positions for the rest of the Newlands test.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday banned Smith for the fourth test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg and fined his match fee. Bancroft has been given three demerit points and was fined 75% of his match fee.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia (CA) are hoping to share the results of their investigation into the ball-tampering scandal within a couple of days as they look to take control of a story that has plunged the country into turmoil.
The incident has been met with astonishment in Australia, with the protagonists – Smith, Warner and Bancroft – lambasted in the media under headlines almost universally trumpeting the word “Shame”.
CA chief executive James Sutherland said he would be heading to South Africa to join integrity chief Iain Roy, who is conducting the investigation.
“I am travelling to Johannesburg and will arrive Tuesday morning [today] local time to meet Iain to understand the findings of the investigation to that point, and to determine recommended outcomes,” he said.
“We know Australians want answers and we will keep you updated on our findings and next steps, as a matter of urgency.”
CA chairman David Peever said the body expected to be able to fully update the Australian public on the findings tomorrow morning Australia time.
Smith, the CA said earlier yesterday, would remain in South Africa until the investigation was concluded even though he would be unable to play in the fourth test in Johannesburg later this week.
The story continued to dominate the major newspapers in Australia and abroad with Australia’s belief of playing the sport “hard but fair” in complete tatters. – TimesLIVE, Reuters