Fresh blood but tension lingers from Sandpapergate

Almost all the Australians are still standing, but South Africa has named just three of the players involved in the controversial 2018 Cape Town Test for this summer’s three-match return series.

South African Test skipper Dean Elgar.

Almost all the Australians are still standing, but South Africa has named just three of the players involved in the controversial 2018 Cape Town Test for this summer’s three-match return series.

There are tensions among all nations, but nothing comes close to the bad blood between the two teams which came to a head in that bad-tempered series.

The issue came to a head when three Australians were banned for ball tampering in the third Test, but not before a series of other unsavoury incidents which involved a scuffle in the stairwell and Kagiso Rabada having to launch legal action to escape a ban after a physical clash with Steve Smith in the second Test.

Then captain Faf du Plessis stoked the fires on ball tampering recently when admitting he was a serial offender. Tim Paine claimed the opposition continued tampering with the ball, even after the scandal in the third Test.

David Warner is still fighting a life leadership ban imposed out of the third match which cost Smith his captaincy and both senior players a year of cricket.

Paine and Shaun Marsh have left the international scene and Cameron Bancroft, the third player involved in the sandpaper scandal, has not played a Test since 2019, but the other eight Australians are all still playing.

Du Plessis and almost all the senior South Africans have retired or moved on to other cricket, but one of the chief antagonists, Rabada, is among the returnees.

Rabada took 15 wickets at 22.4 on a similarly ill-tempered series in Australia in 2016 and has a career total of 38 at an average of 20.5 against the Aussies.

Temba Bavuma and Keshav Maharaj are the other two who remain from the 2019 clash.

Quinton de Kock, the wicketkeeper involved in the infamous melee with Warner during the first Test in 2018, quit Test cricket this year. The 29-year-old’s exit was another blow for a country that struggles to retain its cricketers. The cash-strapped Cricket South Africa board cancelled a one-day series against Australia scheduled for January as it focuses on a domestic T20 league.

South Africa has called up eight new Test players in the past 18 months because of the churn.

Traditionally the nation refused to tour Australia in the second half of the summer because it clashed with its own summer but that objection has been dropped.

South Arica has not lost a Test series in Australia since Graeme Smith’s side pulled off a historic win in 2008-09.

Du Plessis was critical to their success on his debut in the following 2012-13 series while the 2016-17 victory saw crisis meetings held in Hobart and six players axed from the next Test.

Matt Renshaw, Nic Maddinson, Peter Handscomb and Chadd Sayers all made their debuts in the following Test while two others were recalled.

The three Test matches will be held in Brisbane (Dec 17-21), Melbourne (Dec 26-30) and Sydney (Jan 4-8) and South Africa will also play a four-day warm-up match against an Australian XI at Allan Border Field (Dec 9-12).

South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma, Gerald Coetzee, Theunis de Bruyn, Sarel Eree, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Heinrich Klaasen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Glenton Stuurman, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Khaya Zondo