When Cameron Bancroft made the seismic decision on March 24, 2018, to take a small sheet of sandpaper out of his pocket and attempt to scuff up the ball, he should have known he would never get away with it.
asserted
he → make → it
Stationed around Newlands, one of the most picturesque venues in world cricket, were at least 30 cameras, many of them manned.
asserted
many → station → them
Not all were focused on the engrossing Test match that was slowly slipping through Australia’s fingers, or the imposing background of Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak, which overlook Cape Town.
asserted
which → focus → Town
Some cut in between deliveries to the colour in the crowd or the bikini-clad women on the hill, others to players chatting on the field.
asserted
others → cut → field
The seemingly most mundane role produces shots that normally do not make the telecast – they did on this occasion.
asserted
they → produce → occasion
“Every Test match, we follow the ball,” SuperSport’s head of production Alvin Naicker told this masthead.
asserted
Naicker → follow → masthead
“We have more than 30 cameras, 18 are manned cameras, the rest of them are on angles.
asserted
rest → have → angles
There are so many cameras, I don’t know how people think they’ll get away with doing anything wrong.
asserted
they → be → anything
The now infamous vision of Bancroft working on the ball with what he initially claimed was yellow tape that had caught granules off the pitch was actually not aired live.
asserted
that → work → pitch
It had occurred moments earlier, before the second ball of the 22nd over after lunch on the third day.
asserted
It → occur → day
“One of the replay guys, he was recording it,” Naicker said.
asserted
Naicker → record → it
“He turned around and said, ‘Hey Al, have a look at this’.
asserted
He → turn → this
I looked at it on preview and said, ‘What happened there?’
asserted
What → look → preview
He said, ‘Just have a look’.
asserted
He → say → look
“I look at it and go, ‘Wow’.”
asserted
I → look → it
The scandal not only rocked the world game but triggered a mass exodus from leadership positions in Australian cricket’s biggest crisis since World Series Cricket.
asserted
scandal → rock → Cricket
More than eight years later, as the Australian team returns to South Africa for their first Test series in the country since the scandal, starting on Friday, current skipper Pat Cummins would like to draw a line under the episode.
“It was a long time ago, and I don’t think there’s much more to add,” he said.
asserted
he → return → episode
“We’re concentrating on the tour ahead.”
asserted
We → concentrate → tour
Steve Smith, who was stripped of the Australian captaincy and banned for 12 months for turning a blind eye to the plan when he could have stopped it, is the only one of the central trio who is still in the team.
uncertain
who → strip → team
Whatever Cummins’ views, there remains great intrigue over the events in Cape Town, what led up to them and what followed.
asserted
what → remain → them
This masthead’s reporting draws on recent conversations with more than 20 members of the 2018 Australian touring party, administrators, player agents and commentators, who mostly spoke on the condition of anonymity, as well as previous discussions and on-the-ground observations eight years ago.
asserted
who → draw → ground
There are still differing versions of what went down in South Africa, and unanswered questions.
asserted
what → be → Africa
Who knew what and when?
asserted
Who → know → what
Were the teams tampering with the ball earlier in the series?
asserted
teams → tamper → series
Did the swift Cricket Australia investigation capture the full picture?
asserted
investigation → capture → picture
To gain a greater understanding of why and how the sandpaper scandal unfolded as it did at Newlands, one needs to first return to the previous match of the series, the second Test at St George’s Park, Port Elizabeth.
asserted
one → gain → Park
The teams convened there after a highly charged first Test in Durban won by Australia, but better remembered for a heated stairwell altercation between David Warner and Quinton de Kock.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland had phoned Smith in a bid to restore calm, and the Australian captain brought his teammates together for a players-only gathering in the Port Elizabeth dressing room before play started.
The temperature did not come down.
asserted
temperature → convene → room
The Australians were furious at South African officials’ indifference towards crowd abuse directed towards Warner’s wife Candice, who was in attendance with their two daughters and her brother.
asserted
who → direct → daughters
At the same time, an underhanded game within a game developed as the ball swung dramatically over a dry wicket.
asserted
ball → develop → wicket
Reverse swing, which was usually generated by scuffing the ball on one side, had been a factor in the series from almost the outset and Australia grew suspicious about finger splints being worn by two of the South Africans, AB de Villiers and Dean Elgar, noticing they jogged off and on the field during play on several occasions.
asserted
they → generate → occasions
The Australians had also been told that umpires had found a discarded finger splint during the previous Test at Kingsmead.
asserted
umpires → tell → Kingsmead
Warner, meanwhile, was increasingly agitated, believing the cameras of the host broadcaster, SuperSport, were following him in the field, looking up to see himself on the big screen time and again.
asserted
cameras → agitate → screen
His suspicions were well-founded.
asserted
suspicions → found → ?
One day after play he even made his way up to the office of the ICC match referee, New Zealander Jeff Crowe, to relay his frustrations at the focus on him.
asserted
he → make → him
Warner was wearing strapping tape on his left hand, fingers and thumb, which he had broken in the past, and with the cameras trained on him, the inference was that he must be doing something other than shining the ball.
There have always been questions about whether the Australians were ball tampering in Port Elizabeth, too, but no one has come out and said it, nor that the South Africans were taking their own shortcuts despite the visitors’ belief that they were.
The broadcasters were more than curious as to why wickets fell in clumps with an older ball.
asserted
wickets → wear → ball
“We knew the ball was reverse-swinging, but we didn’t understand why it was reverse-swinging so early,” Naicker said.
asserted
Naicker → know → ?
The spotlight on Warner at St George’s Park explained why it was Bancroft, and not Australia’s vice captain and regular ball manager, who was tasked with using a foreign object in Cape Town.
asserted
who → explain → Town
Unwittingly, Warner drew more attention to himself by writing the names of his wife and daughters on his hand and finger strapping.
asserted
Warner → draw → hand
“It gave us reason to believe we should watch something,” Naicker said.
asserted
Naicker → give → something
“Why would he do that?
asserted
he → do → that
…and 97 more, not listed.
The Aporia
