Josh Hazlewood reflects on the ball-tampering scandal that rocked Australian cricket

INJURED fast bowler Josh Hazlewood says he and his teammate were surprised by the enormity of the ball-tampering scandal, and shared his thoughts on why it might have happened.

Australian quick Josh Hazlewood has given a revealing insight into why Australia may have cheated in South Africa. Picture: AFP

JOSH Hazlewood believes a focus only on winning may have been a catalyst for the cheating scandal in South Africa.

And the sidelined fast bowler conceded he and the players were surprised how huge the scandal became.

Cricket Australia might be running its own investigations into the team’s disgrace, but those involved are already moving toward their own conclusions.

Hazlewood suggested maybe the players were too immature and the demands they win at all were costs too great.

Australian quick Josh Hazlewood has given a revealing insight into why Australia may have cheated in South Africa. Picture: AFP

It has been three months now since Cameron Bancroft took sandpaper onto the field. He, Steve Smith and David Warner are all serving bans from cricket as a result.

Hazlewood, who withdrew from the ODI tour with injury, reflected on the scandalous time on the News Corp Cricket Unfiltered podcast this week and declared the stress on players added to the incident.

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“It’s a big tour always South Africa, coming off the back of an Ashes as well which was quite stressful,” he said. “All big tours are stressful and that added pressure we probably put on ourselves as much as anyone to win.

“Where the stress has come from is that we are pretty much measured on our cricket ability, not as people off the field, which we had probably got away from in the past six months, 12 months.

LISTEN! Aussie quick Josh Hazlewood drops into the Cricket Unfiltered studios for a revealing chat on his injury, picking up the pieces after the ball tampering fiasco and his own role as a leader in the Australian team.

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“A focus only on results I guess drives people to do different things and we are only measured on our cricket success. I don’t think that’s how it is now, I think that’s changed a little bit, JL (Justin Langer) has talked a lot about how we are behaving off the field and we are going to be measured on that as well which is a good sign.”

Josh Hazlewood believes the Steve Smith and David Warner may have succumbed to the pressure of winning at all costs.

Justin Langer speculated recently that Smith may not have been strong enough as a leader. Steve Waugh pointed out this week that he was 33 when he became captain, while Smith was only 26 and Halzewood said maybe a lack of worldly experience affected the axed skipper.

“Cricket wise I think he was ready, he probably wasn’t ready with everything that came with it I guess,” Hazlewood said of Smith.

“It’s a different time now where we’re basically cricketers from the time we leave school and we don’t really experience life outside of cricket and the cricket environment, back in those times they probably got out in the world, had a few jobs, learned a lot of life lessons. Now you go straight from school into a cricket environment and cricket is all you know.”

Josh Hazlewood is nursing an injury.

Hazlewood admitted the players had no idea how huge the scandal would be.

“Absolutely, we went to bed that night and Australia hadn’t woken up yet, when it hit back in Australia and we woke up it was quite surprising how big a reaction it was,” he said. “It wasn’t massive in South Africa, all the Australian writers know its going on here and there and around different teams and people have been done in the past, I guess they talked it down a bit if anything but once it hit home the media went the other way and the reaction was massive.”

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