After David Warner, Mitchell Starc has reacted to Usman Khawaja's bombshell claim that everyone in the dressing room knew about ball-tampering during the Newlands
Test against South Africa. Starc, who was part of the playing XI in that game, has rejected Khawaja's claim and said that they (the Australian bowlers) had no knowledge about it. Speaking to media on Tuesday (November 10), Starc said: “I haven’t really paid much attention to be fair, obviously there’s differing opinions of eight years ago." "We were heavily drilled through the process at the time, and since and I guess I won’t speak on behalf of the bowlers, but where I stand, my opinion hasn’t changed. My recollection hasn’t changed from what we said in 2021. As far as our statement said, we weren’t aware of things being taken on the field, that’s where I’ll leave it," he added. In 2021, the Australian bowling line-up, including Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon, had issued a statement after Cameron Bancroft hinted that bowlers were aware of it. "We pride ourselves on our honesty. So it's been disappointing to see that our integrity has been questioned by some journalists and past players in recent days in regard to the Cape Town Test of 2018. We have already answered questions many times on this issue, but we feel compelled to put the key facts on the record again. We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands," the Aussie bowlers said in a statement.
Cricket Australia banned 3 players
Cricket Australia were quick to take action following the ball-tampering saga and they banned three players. Steve Smith and Warner were banned for a year each while Bancroft was sanctioned for nine months.
All three players returned to international cricket in 2019. Smith is the present vice-captain of the Test team and he has also captained the side in Cummins'
