In March 2018, Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper to alter the ball during the Test match at Newlands in Cape Town against South Africa. The incident triggered one of the most damaging crises in Australian cricket history, implicating captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner in a coordinated plan to tamper with the ball. Smith and Warner were subsequently suspended for 12 months, while Bancroft received a nine-month ban from international and domestic cricket.
Eight years
later, former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has revisited the scandal with a critical assessment of how Cricket Australia managed the fallout. Speaking on the Beyond the Boundary podcast with former South Africa pacer Vernon Philander, du Plessis expressed sympathy for Bancroft and argued that the board's response amplified the controversy rather than containing it.
"Bancroft, and honestly, my first instincts with him were, I felt sorry for the guy. When I saw him, first of all, he did that, and I was like, 'Shame.' He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know how to get the ball to reverse swing, because taking a piece of sandpaper out of your pocket with cameras, it's not the most clever thing to do," du Plessis said.
Du Plessis was present at the Newlands ground during the Test match and witnessed the Australian team's immediate response to the discovery. He recalled how the delayed press conference and the statement that followed created more suspicion than clarity among observers.
"Then it was that whole incident. I mean, we were sitting after the day's play. And we were like, the team is taking like an hour before the press conference has to start. So we're like, why are they taking so long? What are they doing?" he added.
"And then they issued that statement. And that statement was just like putting blitz under a fire and just going there. And they were saying, no one knows about it. The captain had no idea. The coach had no idea. And everyone was just like, well, hang on, what's going on here? Everyone knows what goes on in a dressing room," he said.
How Cricket Australia's response escalated the crisis
Du Plessis contended that the board's defensive posture and the subsequent involvement of political figures transformed a cricket disciplinary matter into a national scandal. He observed that former cricketers and government officials amplified the controversy, which he felt was disproportionate to the offence itself.
"So I think it was more the way that they handled that that caused a lot of noise. And then it went back to Australia, where the Australian Prime Minister got involved. The ex-cricketers were smashing the team about how you can do that? And we were sitting there going, come on, guys." Plessis said.
"It's not like you guys got a first to do it. You never did it. Like, don't be glasshouse," he added.
Du Plessis revealed that he had messaged Steve Smith during the crisis, expecting a brief suspension. However, the actual consequences proved far more severe than anticipated. Smith and Warner missed a full year of international and domestic cricket, while Bancroft sat out nine months.
"Everyone has done it at some stage in their career. Warner, Smith and Bancroft were the three guys who were actually caught. I felt the right thing to do was to send Steve Smith a message and say, Listen, I know you guys are trying to do the right thing. You're going to go through some crap over the next week. I thought it would be like a week or a month," Faf opined.
"But it ended up being a year. I was just like, I'm sorry you're going through this. You shouldn't take the brunt of this. It's a thing that, unfortunately, should fall on the whole team. But yeah, I felt for Bancroft. I felt sorry for him because he just didn't know how to do it. And Steve Smith for trying to do the right thing to be the captain and say, it's my show," he added.
Why du Plessis believed the ICC should have led the investigation
Du Plessis advocated for independent handling of the matter by cricket's global governing body, arguing that political interference created a dangerous precedent. He contended that allowing the International Cricket Council to manage the discipline would have produced a more proportionate outcome.
"I think they could have handled that a little bit better. Cricket Australia had other ideas. And they made that thing become a very big thing. Just let the ICC deal with it. I think when you let politics and stuff come into sport, it never ends well," Plessis said.
"And that's the case with the Prime Minister's politics and everyone putting pressure on them. And they're feeling like they have to act. They have to act to show that they're doing something. I think that becomes a dangerous precedent," he added.
Du Plessis outlined what he believed would have been a more measured outcome had Cricket Australia taken a different approach on the night of the incident. He suggested that proportionate sanctions would have allowed the players to return to action within weeks or months rather than a full year.
"I think if they took it on the chin on that night and said, Cameron would have said, I'm sorry, I made it a bad thing. I'm young in international cricket, and I'm sorry. Which he obviously did. But I think he would have gotten a 50 per cent match fee from the ICC," he further said.
"Steve Smith would have played the next Test match. David Warner, they would have played the whole rest of the year. But what ended up happening is they missed a year of cricket," he concluded.
