The bowlers had to know about ball tampering, says Michael Clarke

Former captain Michael Clarke says the bowlers had to know that sandpaper was being used on the ball in South Africa.

Michael Clarke says CA tried to sweep the ball-tampering scandal under the carpet Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke says the bowlers had to know that sandpaper was being used on the ball in South Africa and more than three people knew.

“They’ve got to hold the ball to bowl with it,” Clarke said on his Sky Sports Radio Big Breakfast show.

“So, if there’s sandpaper being rubbed on the ball they have to get the ball back to the bowler and the bowler has to hang on to it before he lets it go.”

Cameron Bancroft reactivated ball tampering tensions on the weekend by strongly hinting in an interview with a UK newspaper that Australia’s bowlers knew that he was using sandpaper on a cricket ball in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in 2018.

Responding to the revived controversy, Clarke said: “I can tell you now if you went and grabbed a pen, just a pen and put a little ‘1’ somewhere on my cricket bat; on top of the handle, on the edge of the bat, on the toe of the bat, on the face, under the grip, anywhere, just a little number one, I would have noticed.

“If you are playing sport at the highest level you know your tools that good it’s not funny.

“Can you imagine that ball being thrown back to the bowler and the bowler not knowing about it?

“Please.”

Clarke said the “the problem Cricket Australia has is the fact they have tried to sweep it under the carpet”.

Potential Test captain Pat Cummins with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Nathan Lyon bowled in the match where Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper on the ball.

Clarke said the truth could “come out in someone’s book anyway”.

“I love how the articles in the paper are ‘it is such a big surprise that Cameron Bancroft has made a …’ Actually if you read his quotes it is not what he did say as what he didn’t say in regards to other people knowing about sandpapergate,” he said.

“What’s the surprise? That more than three people knew? I don’t think anybody who has played the game of cricket or knows a little bit about cricket would know that in a team like that, at the highest level, when the ball is such an important part of the game.

“I don’t think anybody is surprised that more than three people knew about it.”

Meanwhile, Test great Adam Gilchrist believes Cricket Australia is paying the price for a swift and superficial ball tampering investigation which failed to address the root of the problem that continues to haunt Australian cricket.

Gilchrist believes it is only a matter of time before “names are named”.

“It will linger forever, whether it is someone’s book or an ad hoc interview,” Gilchrist said on SEN’s Gilly and Goss. “Eventually I think names will be named. I think there are some people who have it stored away and are ready to pull the trigger when the time is right.”

“The fallout is going to linger on and on because pretty much most teams in the world were doing something with the ball in that period,’’ Gilchrist said. “It was getting out of control.

“I think Cricket Australia are responsible for why this will be continually asked. When they did their investigation at the time they had Patty Howard the high-performance general manager, Iain Roy was the integrity officer.

“They went there and did this very quick review of that isolated incident and perhaps no one in the team knew. Perhaps Cam did grab the sandpaper on his own accord and walked out there and did not tell anyone.”

News Corp papers revealed on Sunday that not all players were interviewed by the integrity officer when the review was conducted. Roy and Howard have since left the organisation.

Cricket Australia maintain the door is open to anybody with new evidence.

Gilchrist criticised the investigation saying he felt the authorities did not want to go too deep into the incident.

“There was an opportunity for CA if they were going to make such a strong statement they needed to do a more thorough investigation to work out where the root of the problem was,” he said.

“Anyone would be naive to think people were not aware with what was going on about ball maintenance. I don’t think Cricket Australia wanted to go there. They did not want to go any deeper than that superficial example of ball tampering.

“They did not investigate to see whether it was systemic had it been going on and on and on. Around the cricketing globe it was widely accepted a lot of teams were doing it.’’

David Warner and captain Steve Smith were banned for a year over the incident and Bancroft for nine months. Warner was banned for life from holding a leadership position in Australia and Smith was given a two-year captaincy ban.

Gilchrist said the bans and increased ball tampering penalties have changed the game and stopped ball tampering and consequently reduced reverse swing as a factor in the game.

“You haven’t see any reverse swing since that incident as a general statement across world cricket,” he said. “Very minimal reverse swing.

“The positive that has come out with that punishment is it seems to have been eradicated from the game because it was getting out of control because it was getting out of control around the entire cricket world not just the Australian cricket team.

Gilchrist believes Bancroft reluctantly answered the question in an interview with Guardian UK journalist Donald McRae.

“He was pressed. I think Cam had no initial desire … he did not sit down and have an agenda item to bring the sandpaper thing back in,” he said.

“I was in touch with Cam and he said he had not been down that road for quite a while. He sort of ummed and ahhed.

“I want to stress that Cam Bancroft takes ownership … ‘the buck stops with me. I did what I did.’ I don’t think he chose to throw it out there at this point in time to try and drag anyone in. He was asked twice in the same interview did the bowlers know about it.”