‘Embarrassing’ four-fingered salute summed up Australia’s arrogance before ball tampering scandal

A moment of Ashes madness summed up Australian cricket’s culture before South Africa and paved the way for the scandal that rocked the nation.

While the ball tampering bans may now be over, the dark spectre of the scandal will long hang over Australian cricket.

After a year of speculation and exile for Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, as well as the beginning of a process of rebuilding for Australian cricket following the most damaging period to rock the sport, the scandal will long take a place in the back of cricket fans minds.

A year on from the Cape Town incident, Sky News’ 30-minute documentary Downfall looks back at the scandal with some of Australian cricket’s biggest names discussing the incident that rocked Australia.

At this point, the fallout is all too familiar after a year of intense media scrutiny after sandpaper was used on the ball in a ploy to get reverse swing administered by eight-Test player Bancroft.

But the moment that spawned the scandal may not have been in South Africa.

The DNA can be traced back years.

These men felt the pressure of history.

Australia’s unparalleled era of dominance had to come to an end at some point.

Courier Mail cricket journalist Robert Craddock said it was something Australian players never got over.

“Australia never got used to the retirement of its champions,” he said. “When Gilchrist, Warne, Hayden, Ponting and all those guys left, Australia just thought ‘we’ve got a conveyor belt, there’ll be more champions arrive’.

“But when they never arrived and we were ushered into an era of mediocrity, the system became really jolted. And suddenly, world rankings that we had taken for granted really mattered.”

The gaps left players such as Smith and Warner under coach Darren Lehmann, who had been given increasing authority over the side to gain results.

Cricket writer for The Australian Gideon Haigh said it was too much pressure on players who weren’t experienced in the side.

“They had to learn very quickly on the job to be not just great cricketers, not just major personalities, but leaders in the Australian game,” he said. “They are players who have been licensed to play cricket in a certain way. They were identified very early in their careers as future internationals, they had very little first class experience before they represented Australia — of course David Warner had none — their progress was radically accelerated and perhaps as a result their senses of entitlement grew to unsustainable states.”

The side worked its way back up and when Australia won the 2017-18 Ashes 4-0, the cracks were being paved over by wins.

Craddock said there was a key moment of Ashes celebration that proved something wasn’t right.

“When Australia won the Ashes 4-0 and the celebration in Sydney included the four-fingered salute in the air with the fireworks, I must say that was one of the most embarrassing events in modern Australian cricket history,” he said.

History has not remembered this image well.

Haigh added: “The ridiculous float that was put out and the general sense of boorishness that we rule and we tell the rest of the world what to do.”

Former players started to see the cracks appear through the year with the style of play bleeding into the team.

The four-fingered salute seemed to be more indicative of the culture of Cricket Australia, one the scandal exposed all too well.

“I thought that was pretty arrogant and it had nothing to do with the players — that’s marketing or a department within Cricket Australia that had been let loose and I thought that was pretty embarrassing,” Australian cricket legend Adam Gilchrist said.

Downfall will air on Fox Cricket on Monday April 1 at 7.30pm, and will be available anywhere, anytime on Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now and will also be available to stream on Kayo from 8pm on Monday.

THE FATAL MOVE IN THE INCIDENT

Ball tampering has been around for a long time according to Craddock.

“From the time way back in the 1960s when bowlers used to wear brylcreem in their hair wipe their hair, rub it on the ball,” he said. “In the 1980s they used to use invisible sunscreen and it was just a little way of letting bowlers have an edge and no one took it too seriously.”

Tampering had evolved to dirt in the pocket from former England captain in 1994, Pakistan star Shahid Afridi biting the ball, South African skipper Faf du Plessis using a zipper and a mint in separate incidents and anything else players can use to get an edge for their attack.

Border said ball tampering has been part of world cricket for years.

“We’ve got to remember that this has been going on for a long time, not necessarily using sandpaper but certainly tampering with a cricket ball,” he said.

“All countries have had their moments where they’ve been doing something to a cricket ball make it swing or seam or do whatever so it wasn’t a surprise that someone had been caught doing it.”

But the South African tour had been heated from the outset with the ball swinging unnaturally from the first day of the first Test as ball tampering accusations flew.

Footage showing Cameron Bancroft trying to hide the evidence.

The Daily Telegraph reported at the time the Aussies reportedly quizzed umpires in the first Test in Durban about how the Proteas bowlers were getting the ball to reverse swing so early in an innings.

A player allegedly made the inquiry before the start of play on day two.

“How the f*** could they get the ball to reverse swing after 18 overs yesterday?” the player reportedly asked officials Kumar Dharmasena and Sundaram Ravi.

From there, there was a greater focus on potential ball tampering in the series.

The tensions were heated in the series in the first Test especially.

Now largely forgotten after the ball-tampering fallout was David Warner and Quinton de Kock’s heated confrontation in the first Test after the Aussie claimed he was reacting to a “vile and disgusting” remark about his wife Candice by de Kock.

The simmering tensions and frustrations of a one-all series also played its part.

But Australia had been warned in advance.

“There was always a concern, and I remember raising this with Darren Lehmann, saying ‘look, whatever you guys are doing with the ball, remember the cameras are on you 24 hours a day’,” Julian said.

On the day of the ball tampering, Warner was fielding at fine leg and wearing bandages on his fingers, which sparked suspicions with the feeling around the ground that “it doesn’t feel right”.

It was like a slow motion train crash.

The players made it worse however with the fateful press conference following play where Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft fronted the cameras.

“I admired their motives for doing that,” Lalor said. “That’s why I though Smith would do that because the Steve Smith I know would come out and say ‘we are responsible’. And they made one critical error. They were only 90 per cent honest about the sandpaper and that cut them off at the knees.”

THE DOWNFALL AND REDEMPTION

Steve Smith has maintained he didn’t know what was being planned but fell on his sword after the incident.

Shane Warne ridiculed the hysteria surrounding the event saying “Steve Smith is not Pablo Escobar”.

Haigh likened the fallout to the “End Times”, “a court martial” or “burning of a heretic”.

The fallout was incredible with the interest surpassing just a sports story.

But the future is unclear with plenty of questions.

Steve Smith was comforted by his father when returning to Australia.

Despite several interviews with Smith and Bancroft, the full story doesn’t feel realised still after a year in the public eyes.

“I think the general public, and I’d probably adhere to this, that it would be a bit surprising that only three players knew about this,” Gilchrist said.

“I think time heals everything. But just let the emotion settle and look at the journey the players have been on and the remorse they’ve shown, I have no doubt that they’re remorseful and sorry and they just want to move forward. I think time will allow that all to heal and the game is stronger than any individuals.”

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The next step is now ahead of Australia.

Administrators have been removed, culture has been deeply investigated and found wanting, Darren Lehmann has been replaced by Justin Langer and Test skipper Tim Paine has added a new way to play aggressively to the side without compromising its values.

And Australia is starting to win on the field.

A year on from this scandal, there seems to be only one way forward.

“The Australian public want to be able to like the players,” Julian said. “They want to be able to like the way they play, they want to be able to respect the players and they want their kids to look up to them. People need to fall in love with them and love they way they play, and if they do that then everything else will look after itself.”