Bostock: Durham happy to help Bancroft rebuild reputation
Durham chief executive Tim Bostock says that Cameron Bancroft is keen to rebuild his reputation in the game after agreeing a move to the Emirates Riverside for the 2019 season.
The club confirmed the signing of the 25-year-old, who was suspended for nine months by Cricket Australia for his role in the ball-tampering scandal in Australia’s series against South Africa, which also saw bans presented to captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner.
Bostock has admitted that he did have to think about the move for the Australian. However, he is confident that Bancroft can prove his character on and off the pitch, while providing the north-east outfit with a quality player at the top of the innings.
He said: “Everybody knows the situation with not only Bancroft, but Smith and Warner. He’s been dealt with and he deeply regrets his actions, he’s been serving his suspension. He’s available in all forms of cricket in all countries from January 1st in fact he can play in England now. We made the decision based on cricketing reasons.
“We’re really happy with Cameron, we’ve done some diligence around him as an individual as you would expect and his character from players who’ve played with him and against him. He’s a really great character, we think he will add a lot to out dressing room in the right way.
“He definitely sees it as an opportunity to rebuild his reputation. He can do a lot of good stuff off the field, which I know he has been doing in the community. It’s on the field as much as anything else. He’s an extremely popular young man even among the England players, although things went on in the winter. People speak highly of him and highly of him as a person. The best thing he can do is get out there and play cricket.
“I definitely had to think about [signing him], because it would be wrong for me not to. When I look at the playing roster and where we want to go as a club and what our ambitions are, the type of profile of player and the age, Cameron was an obvious choice for us. If you can open the batting for Australia, you can obviously play the game. So from the cricketing perspective I didn’t have to think to hard about that. I get paid to make those decisions, not everyone is going to agree with them. I’m a leader not a follower.”
Bostock has revealed that the prospect of having Bancroft available for the entirety of the 2019 season played a huge role in the deal, with many of the world’s elite players slated to appear in the World Cup in the middle of the domestic campaign.
He added: “I think there is probably sympathy for Cameron out of all of the three of them.” l The Vitality Blast clash between Durham Jets and Derbyshire Falcons was abandoned without a ball being bowled at Emirates Riverside.
The rain arrived just before the toss and persisted before the contest was finally called off at 7.45pm.
Both sides are awarded a point apiece, which leaves Durham at the top of the North Group, while the Falcons end with 12 points.
The Jets now await the results of the remaining games in the competition to determine their opponent in their quarter-final clash on home soil scheduled for next week.