Cameron Bancroft revelations break the silence like a bandsaw as Aussies enter quarantine

The returning Aussie cricketers may have slipped quietly into quarantine in Sydney, but for Australian cricket there’s a lot of noise around and it doesn’t sound particularly pleasant.

The quiet solitude of a group of Australian cricketers heading into quarantine was a contrast to a storm brewing outside their isolated world in Sydney.

A group of 38 players, commentators and support staff who went to the Maldives after the Indian Premier League was postponed a fortnight ago arrived back in Sydney on Monday to go into a 14-day quarantine.

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Cameron Bancroft, who is playing with county cricket with Durham, has ignited Australian cricket’s dirty moment all over again. Picture: Getty Images

As they headed into isolation, Cricket Australia was negotiating the fallout of an interview by batsman Cameron Bancroft who inferred that Australia’s bowlers knew what he was up to when he infamously used sandpaper on a cricket ball in a Cape Town Test in 2018.

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke said he felt the bowlers would have known and James Erskine, manager of David Warner who was banned for a year for his role, told News Corp “you would have to be blind black Labrador not to realise more than three people knew about it.’’

“If I had to have a guess I would say between 25 and 40 people knew,’’ Erskine said.

Former cricketer turned commentator Michael Slater was the first to exit the airport followed by Pat Cummins and Steve Smith.

Others onboard the Qantas flight including IPL stars Moises Henriques and Chris Lynn, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey and Brett Lee and former Australian women’s star turned commentator Lisa Sthalekar.

Bancroft and Steven Smith front the media after sandpaper was used on the ball in the infamous Cape Town Test in 2018. Picture: Getty Images

Sthalekar, who was born in India, has penned an emotional column of rare and poignant insight for The Australian in which she talks about how the last three weeks have changed her “forever.’’

Sthalekar reveals how she has an “aching sadness inside’’ at having to leave Covid-ravaged India at a time when the locals were experiencing such distress and how disturbed she was at witnessing calls from people around her for hospital beds, plasma and oxygen.

“I will be sad,’’ Sthalekar wrote in The Australian. “Sad for a very long time. India and the people I care about will constantly be in my thoughts.’’