Wisden editor’s scathing attack on CA and ‘Sandpapergate’

“Sandpapergate” showed Australia believed they were “above the law,” says Wisden editor.

“To cheat so brazenly confirmed a widely held suspicion: Australia believed they were above the law,” Wisden editor Lawrence Booth said.

The editor of England’s respected Wisden Almanac has questioned findings that only three Australians were responsible for the sandpaper scandal in South Africa amid a scathing attack on Australian cricket culture.

In his editorial for the 156th edition of the publication, editor Lawrence Booth is cynical about the findings made by Cricket Australia counsel Iain Roy after a limited investigation into the incident.

Roy concluded that only Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were involved and notions it had happened before were dismissed.

Booth writes that the one year bans handed out Warner and Smith and nine month ban for Bancroft were an over-reaction.

“An inquiry by Cricket Australia felt more like a whitewash: there had been no previous tampering, and only three players were involved,” Booth writes.

“Fancy that … The outrage was disproportionate: fiddling with the ball, if not rubbing it with sandpaper, happens.

“But there was more to it than outrage. Australia had been undone by the hubris-nemesis one-two, which has kept playwrights in business since Ancient Greece.

“With their prattle about the line — where it should be drawn (just beyond whatever the Australians had just done) and by whom (the Australians, naturally) — Smith’s side forfeited the last drop of goodwill. This wasn’t just English tittering: many of their compatriots were sick of them too. To cheat so brazenly confirmed a widely held suspicion: Australia believed they were above the law.”

Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner in the wake of Sandpapergate. Wisden editor Lawrence Booth says the Cricket Australia inquiry which followed felt like a “whitewash”.

“Was this the first time?”

Former Cricket Australia director Mark Taylor recently raised questions as to whether there had been other incidents of ball tampering.

“There was no probe into finding out how long it had been going on for,” Taylor told Wide World of Sports.

“Was this the first time? There’s no doubt this ‘ball management’ has been going on for a long time, and I dare say every country is either doing it or working out how to do it, but there’s a line somewhere between ball management and ball tampering.

“The grey area in all of this is how much of this ball management in the past was tampering and went unnoticed.”

Steve Smith claimed publicly that the incident in Cape Town was a one off.

“I can promise you this is the first time it’s happened,” Smith said.

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts said recently if there was any evidence to the contrary the administration was keen to hear it.

“We’re really serious about addressing any unresolved issues and we’re sincere in the way we’re going about that,” Roberts said. “So if there are any reports or allegations as opposed to innuendo, then we will investigate that thoroughly.”

Bancroft faced the English media overnight, revealing he had almost walked away from cricket after the incident, but was in a better place now and hoped he could return to the Test side.

As much as I missed cricket, the opportunity it gave me to look at myself was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he said. “I had to go home. Sit with myself, grieve, forgive myself, and then ultimately move forward.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself, I think being able to take time to detach myself from cricket was something that I found a lot of joy in. To know that the identity and person I created from being a professional cricketer, a game which I love, I think I was just able to connect a lot with different parts of the community, meet a lot of great people.

“Turning that event from South Africa into a positive was something I was really proud of and to have that opportunity to grow as a person, you’d be silly not to take those steps forward.’’