NEWS
Follow UsMichael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist believe there were surely more than three Australian players who would have known about the sandpaper being used to roughen up the ball in Cape Town in 2018, and also added that more names will come out in the next few days. The Sandpaper-Gate scandal has once again become a hot topic ever since Cameron Bancroft dropped a bomb saying that the Australian bowlers were aware of the ball-tampering tactics.
"They (bowlers) have got to hold the ball to bowl with it. I can tell you now if you went and grabbed a pen, just a pen and put a little ‘1’ somewhere on my cricket bat; on top of the handle, on the edge of the bat, on the toe of the bat, on the face, under the grip, anywhere, just a little number one, I would have noticed," former Australia captain Clarke told Sky Sports’ Big Sports Breakfast.
"If you are playing sport at the highest level you know your tools that good it’s not funny. Can you imagine that ball being thrown back to the bowler and the bowler not knowing about it? Please!"
Clarke also said that he is not surprised by Bancroft’s comments. "I love how the articles in the paper are ‘it is such a big surprise that Cameron Bancroft has made a …’ Actually if you read his quotes it is not what he did say as what he didn’t say in regards to other people knowing about Sandpaper Gate.
"What’s the surprise? That more than three people knew? I don’t think anybody who has played the game of cricket or knows a little bit about cricket would know that in a team like that, at the highest level, when the ball is such an important part of the game. I don’t think anybody is surprised that more than three people knew about it."
Meanwhile, former Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Gilchrist feels Cricket Australia should be blamed for not doing the investigation properly. "It will linger forever, whether it is someone’s book or an ad hoc interview. Eventually, I think names will be named. I think there are some people who have it stored away and are ready to pull the trigger when the time is right," he said on SEN’s Gilly and Goss.
"I think Cricket Australia are responsible for why this will be continually asked. When they did their investigation at the time they had Patty Howard the high-performance general manager, Iain Roy was the integrity officer. They went there and did this very quick review of that isolated incident and perhaps no one in the team knew. Perhaps Cam did grab the sandpaper on his own accord and walked out there and did not tell anyone.
"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. 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."
Following the revelations, Cricket Australia later said that they are open to reinvestigating the whole episode.