Aussie white-ball squad try to ignore sandpaper scandal
Steve Larkin |
Australia’s white-ball cricketers are shutting out the sandpaper scandal, adamant the fresh furore hasn’t seeped into their changeroom.
Australian cricket is continuing an unheralded period of infighting, with the latest revelations casting doubt on Test captain Pat Cummins’ strident ball-tampering denials.
Cummins is steadfast that he knew nothing of Australia’s use of sandpaper on the ball on the infamous 2018 tour of South Africa.
But Chadd Sayers, a member of Australia’s Test squad on the South African tour eight years ago, has sharply contradicted the current Test captain.
“I believe that everyone in that side knew what was going on and what was being used,” Sayers told SEN radio on Sunday.
The retired paceman said Australia used sandpaper on the ball in the second Test of the 2018 series in Port Elizabeth – not just the third Test in Cape Town when the visitors were caught by television cameras.
“And there was discussions in changerooms of how we were going to get the ball to reverse and what was going to be used,” Sayers said.
“I just know that there was numerous conversations of it around in the changerooms.”
Sayers’ comments support the revelations of Usman Khawaja in his book which prompted a fresh round of outrage.
Khawaja maintained the entire touring party knew of plans to use sandpaper on the ball in South Africa.
Cummins last Friday dismissed Khawaja’s claims as “complete and utter nonsense” and rejected any master plan to ball tamper.
Sayers said he took sandpaper from the field after it was used on the ball in the Port Elizabeth Test.
“I just knew it was going to be used, as I believe everyone else did,” said Sayers, who played his only Test in the fourth and final match of the series.
“The plan was that Cameron Bancroft was going to take that out, the ball was going to be dropped on the ground by the umpires, and he was going to go about business.
“It (the sandpaper) was given to me to take off, so that wasn’t planned or anything, I was just the player who took the drinks out at the time.”
After Bancroft was busted by television cameras in Cape Town, the touring party held a lengthy discussion about taking collective responsibility, he said.
“We all sat in the changerooms after that day’s play and probably for 60 to 90 minutes, we talked about what had happened and, I guess, where to go next,” he said.
The uproar has overshadowed Australia’s one-day international series against England. The series is locked one-all ahead of Wednesday’s decider in Hobart.
But batsman Matthew Renshaw, a mate of Khawaja, said the scandal had not been a talking point in the current white-ball dressing room.
“I have spoken to Usman, just checking in on him,” Renshaw said after Australia’s loss to England in Sunday’s one-dayer in Adelaide.
“Haven’t really spoken too much about what’s going on, just sort of checking on him as a human – obviously there’s a lot going on.
“I wasn’t there in Cape Town when it happened so I have got no idea what was going on, so tough for me to comment on that.
“But yeah, I think everyone as humans, obviously everything is going on, but I think the biggest thing is making sure everyone’s OK.”
AAP