CA reaches out to Bancroft as Gilchrist weighs in

Cricket Australia has contacted former Test opener Cameron Bancroft in the wake of his recent comments about the Cape Town ball-tampering controversy and reaffirmed their willingness to revisit the issue if he has new information to share.

Ben Oliver, CA's Executive General Manager of National Teams, confirmed today that members of CA's integrity unit had written to Bancroft offering him the opportunity to provide them with any additional details relating to the 2018 incident that shook Australian cricket.

Bancroft was banned for nine months after he was found to have taken sandpaper on to the field during the third Test against South Africa at Newlands, while ex-captain Steve Smith and his then deputy David Warner were served with year-long suspensions.

A contemporaneous review conducted in South Africa by CA's then head of integrity, Iain Roy, cleared others in the touring party of wrongdoing or involvement but CA has always maintained the investigation remained open should fresh evidence become available.

"There was obviously a thorough investigation into that incident," Oliver said in an online media conference today.

"There were actions taken on the back of that, and since that time everyone who's been involved in the (national men's) team has worked incredibly hard to rebuild confidence and ultimately aspire to make Australians proud of the Australian cricket team.

"We've maintained all the way through that if anyone has any new information relating to that incident that we encourage people to come forward and discuss that with Cricket Australia.

"In this case, our integrity team have reached out to Cam (Bancroft), extending that invitation to him if he does have any new information … or to remind him if he does have any new information in addition to what his input was into the original investigation, there is an avenue for him to do that."

Oliver said CA had yet to receive a reply from Bancroft, largely due to time differences given the Western Australia opener is currently in the UK where he has recently completed quarantine ahead of his return to county outfit, Durham.

The rekindling of the so-called 'sandpaper affair' has arisen from Bancroft's recent interview with The Guardian newspaper in the UK, in which he took responsiblity for his role in the scandal.

In the course of the wide-ranging interview, the 28-year-old was reportedly asked twice whether other members of Australia's team in that 2018 Test at Newlands knew about measures being taken to alter the condition of the ball.

Initially, according to the article published last Saturday, he replied: "Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory."

When pressed on whether some of the bowlers knew of the tactics, he reportedly hesitated before saying: "Uh … yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it’s pretty probably self-explanatory."

The comments have prompted speculation as to whether others, including the bowlers involved in that 2018 Test (Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Marsh) were aware of ball-management practices being planned or implemented.

Former Australia captain and wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist today claimed "pretty much most teams in the world" were engaging in some form of ball-altering at that time and foreshadowed that further details will eventually become public.

"Whether it's someone's book or an ad-hoc interview like that, eventually names will be named," Gilchrist said on his SEN breakfast radio show in Perth.

"I think there's a few people that have got it stored away and are ready to pull the trigger when the time is right.

"Pretty much most teams in the world were doing something to alter the ball through that period, in the years leading up to that.

"It was getting out of control." 

Gilchrist also suggested CA had missed an opportunity to examine in-depth how widespread the incidence of ball-tampering was across all forms of cricket given the swift completion of the review of the Cape Town incident, conducted in the midst of a fractious South Africa tour.

"I think anyone would be naïve to think that people weren't aware of what's going on about ball maintenance and I don't think CA wanted to go there," Gilchrist said today.

"They didn't investigate to see if was systemic, had it been going on and on.

"I think there was an opportunity for CA, if they were going to be so strong and make such a strong statement, that they needed to do a more thorough investigation to try and work out where the root of the problem was.

"Perhaps no one in the team knew.

"Perhaps Cam (Bancroft) did grab the sandpaper on his own accord and walked out there and didn't tell anyone about it, but the fall-out from it is going to linger on and on."

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