Mitchell Starc breaks his silence on ball tampering

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc has broken his silence on the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal.

Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc deny they knew about the ball tampering plan

Fast bowler Mitchell Starc has broken his silence on the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, criticising the press conference held by Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft after the use of sandpaper on the ball was exposed.

The injured quick confirmed there had been significant fallout among the players after Smith claimed the ball-tampering plan had emerged from the team’s leadership group, thereby implicating the bowlers who were among the team’s leaders.

Starc was speaking at a Women in Banking and Finance forum in Sydney at which corporate adviser Sue Cato warned of the dangers of ill-advised, ill-prepared press conferences.

“Going back to what Sue said before about being up front and tackling a problem head on, that’s something the group who decided to go into a press conference didn’t really think about,” Starc said.

“They obviously didn’t see how big the reaction was going to be at that time and then went down the path of not telling the whole truth and then I guess involving another group, which ruined — well, not ruined — but affected other reputations.”

Smith has acknowledged his error in nominating the leadership group, which includes Starc and Josh Hazlewood, and Cricket Australia worked quickly to clarify the situation.

The bowlers were reportedly extremely upset to be included. A subsequent investigation by CA integrity officer Iain Roy laid the blame at the feet of Smith, Bancroft and David Warner.

All three are serving lengthy bans. Starc and Hazlewood are both injured and are not part of the squad that will play its first ODI against England next week. New Australian captain Tim Paine has denied there was any schism in the team over the scandal, but Starc’s comments make it clear the bowlers were not happy how the situation was handled.

Hazlewood also spoke about the incident on Fox Sports program The Back Page earlier in the week. He denied any knowledge of the ball-tampering plan or that he or any other bowlers were involved.

“We obviously have ball maintenance people in the team, usually batsmen because they are in the circle and the bowlers field at fine leg,” he said. “They look after the ball from time to time and if it stops swinging, normally it starts to reverse swing.

“We pretty much get it at the top of our mark one second before we start running in. We have a quick look to see which side of the ball is more worn than the other.”

Hazlewood said it was stressful after the side left the field the day Bancroft was caught out.

“It was pretty emotional afterwards, probably more so the next morning after the news hit Australia and we woke up in South Africa.

“Obviously Steve and Dave stepped down that morning. It was tough to be out there actually.”

Smith this week said he cried for four days after the incident.

“I feel for the three of them,” Hazlewood said. “Especially Steve. Being the skipper, he had to take the full brunt. I’ve spoken with him a fair bit since and he seems to be doing better every day.”

Ricky Ponting, meanwhile, will join the Australian coaching staff in England on a casual basis, helping out Justin Langer. The former captain is in Britain to do some commentary work.

Langer said: “Ricky is one of the greats of the game, and since he was already in England doing some commentary, we saw it as a great opportunity to have him join our team for this important series.

“We have played a lot of cricket together and coached alongside each other previously, and he will also know many of the players ­already through his work with the team over the past two summers and his BBL commitments.

“Ricky’s knowledge of the game is second to none, and we know that his experiences, tactical expertise and leadership will be invaluable as we start to build a team capable of winning a World Cup in these conditions in a year’s time.”

Langer has given the green light for Australia to carry on sledging but says there is no room for rampant on-field abuse.

The Aussies’ behaviour was called into question on the South Africa tour and angry on-field exchanges contributed to a call for a culture change in the camp.

Langer is sure his side will keep deploying the on-field verbals but says there have to be strict boundaries. In other words, sledging good. Abuse bad.

“Everyone talks about sledging but there’s a difference between banter and abuse,” Langer said yesterday.

“There’s no room for abuse but there’s plenty of room for banter or what we call sledging.’’

Additional reporting: AAP