Legends slam Australian ball-tampering trio as ‘even more stupid’ for their dumbest mistake

The ball-tampering scandal that brought Australian cricket to its knees appears “even more stupid” in hindsight, legends claim.

The ball-tampering scandal will go down as one of the darkest sagas in Australian sporting history and cricketing legends have again slammed the stupidity of those who were involved.

The fallout is all too familiar after a year of intense media scrutiny. with Cameron Bancroft copping a nine month suspension and Steve Smith and David Warner handed year-long bans, which are set to end on Friday.

Sandpaper was used on the ball in a ploy to get reverse swing administered by eight-Test player Bancroft.

The move came on the back of frustration with reverse swing; Australia reportedly complained from the first Test about the South Africans able to reverse the ball.

While the scars from the fallout of the scandal which led to last year’s damaging review into Cricket Australia’s culture, Ian Chappell has once again slammed the Australian trio, saying “it’s even more stupid, the more information that I’ve got”.

“They were warned that they were being watched during the first Test, and this blew up in the third Test,” he told the Wide World of Sports.

“The answer they gave was ‘we’re only doing what South Africa are doing’ which tends to make a mockery of the statement when they were caught that this was the first time it had ever happened.”

One of the lasting images from the ball-tampering scandal.

Since the scandal erupted, Smith and Warner played in overseas T20 tournaments as well as Sydney Grade Cricket while Bancroft fronted up for his grade side in Western Australia.

There has also been plenty of hunger for news, particularly after a series of interviews with Bancroft and Smith.

In an interview with Fox Cricket’s Adam Gilchrist in December, Bancroft broke the silence with an interview that threw Warner under the bus, saying he was coerced into cheating by Warner because he desperately wanted to feel valued within the team.

“Dave (Warner) suggested to me to carry the action out on the ball given the situation we were in in the game and I didn’t know any better,” Bancroft told Gilchrist, as reported exclusively by Fox Sports.

“I didn’t know any better because I just wanted to fit in and feel valued, really — as simple as that.”

David Warner copped plenty of media scrutiny over the year-long ban.

It came after 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 former Test wicketkeeper Ian Healy told WWOS said Smith and Bancroft fronting a press conference without knowing the full ramifications of what was caught on video.

“The stupidity hasn’t waned for me either,” Healy told Wide World of Sports.

“They were advised strongly not to go to that press conference but to go back and see the vision as a minimum before they did the press conference, but instead they went straight to the press conference. That lack of understanding was massive and paramount.”

Not a good move.

Former Aussie skipper Mark Taylor also said the cavalier attitude may have been due to the lack of a realisation about how serious the actions were.

And he said it may have informed the tears in the players’ return press conferences.

Previous players found guilty of ball tampering were given match fee penalties with the most severe being Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi being suspended for two T20s for biting the ball.

One of the other big casualties was coach Darren Lehmann, who stood down from coaching.

Speaking on Macquarie Sports Radio, Lehmann said he did feel personally responsible for the scandal.

“Well, I’m head coach, aren’t I?” he said.

“Your responsibility is to try and win the game, not in that particular way, but you’re still in charge of a group of men and staff and that’s part of the reason why I stood down to be perfectly honest, it was about moving on and letting the game of cricket get back to where it should be. For me, I do take responsibility for that.”

It was a tough time for Darren Lehmann as well.

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With former captain Smith and vice-captain Warner’s bans to end later this week ahead of the World Cup and Ashes series later in the year, Lehmann is hopeful the Australian public will forgive the returning stars.

“Hopefully everyone gets behind the boys when they come back — Cameron Bancroft is already back obviously, but Smith and Warner are going to be very important players for us for a long period of time, especially with a World Cup and Ashes coming up,” he said.

“Hopefully all is forgiven and we try and move on.

“I think it’s time to move on and I think that’s where the Australian public are, there’s debate about the length of the ban and whether it was too long. 12 months is a long time, I think everyone is ready for them to come back.

“They’re good young men. Everyone is entitled to make a mistake and they’ve learned from that, I think everyone’s learned from that, I just hope everyone supports them out there.”