David Saker (Photo-Getty)
David Saker (Photo-Getty)

Former Australia bowling coach David Saker has said that the finger-pointing in the infamous 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering is going on and on. Cameron Bancroft, one of the prime culprits, once again fanned the issue, 3 years after everyone thought it was done.

Bancroft who used the sandpaper on the ball claimed that the bowlers probably knew that the foreign object was going to be used on the ball, in a recent interview.

Cricket Australia, Cameron Bancroft
Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith with the two umpires [Image-Getty]
The incident, which is still a bit fresh in some people’s minds, happened in the third Test match between Australia and South Africa at Newlands. As a result of an inquiry conducted by Cricket Australia, Bancroft was banned for nine months while former skipper, Steve Smith, and his deputy, David Warner, were handed a year ban. Smith and Warner were also stripped of their captaincy and vice-captaincy respectively.

“All I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part. Obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory. What had become important to me was being liked, being well valued, feeling really important to my teammates. “Like I was contributing something by using sandpaper on a cricket ball,” Bancroft had told The Guardian in an interview.

It Could Have Been Me To Blame, It Could Have Been Someone Else: David Saker

David Saker was the Australia bowling coach at the time of the incident and no other player or member of the coaching staff was charged for ball-tampering. Darren Lehmann, the former Australia head coach, had stepped down from his post after the end of the series.

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David Saker (Photo-Getty)
David Saker (Photo-Getty)

The aftermath saw Steve Smith banned from captaincy for a period of two years and David Warner being rendered ineligible for any leadership positions in the Australian team ever.

“Obviously a lot of things went wrong at that time. The finger-pointing is going to go on and on and on. There was a lot of people to blame. It could have been me to blame, it could have been someone else. It could have been stopped and it wasn’t, which is unfortunate,” David Saker told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

Cricket Australia, Cameron Bancroft
Cameron Bancroft [Image-Getty]
“Cameron’s a very nice guy. He’s just doing it to get something off his chest … He’s not going to be the last. You could point your finger at me, you could point your finger at Boof [then coach Darren Lehmann], could you point it at other people, of course you could. The disappointing thing is it’s never going to go away. Regardless of what’s said. We all know that we made a monumental mistake. The gravity wasn’t as plain until it all came out,” David Saker added.

Smith and Warner have become part of the Australian team across formats after making their return in 2019, while Bancroft is yet to play for Australia again.

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