The Sandpaper Gate Saga and Its Impact on Cricket Fraternity

​It all began in the build up to the much-awaited test series after the 2017-18 Ashes involving England and Australia with the later being the host and triumphing convincingly.

This tournament was that of South Africa against Australia in South Africa. The South African surface is considered similar to that of Australia and so the home advantage was negated giving the fans around the world to witness a neutral Test tournament, given how other Test series panned out with undue home advantage. So coming back to the main thread, the hype of this tournament surrounded around two world-class pack attacks involving names likes Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, Pat Cummins, Morne Morkel, Kagiso Rabada, and Vernon Philander among the others. The players from both the sides said various things and after the Aussies won the first match, it was thought that the Australian team would again conquer the series in the African nation. But the win at all cost play style of the Aussies cost them as in the second Test, there were exchange of words and incidents involving key players like David Warner, Steve Smith, Kagiso Rabada (who faced the possibility of a ban) and Quinton de Kock.

South Africa leveled the series and then came the third Test at Cape Town, where the inability of the Australian attack to pick wickets led them to tamper with the ball. The so called ‘leadership group’ instructed opener Cameron Bancroft to use sandpaper to collect granules and rub them against the ball I order to get some reverse swing. This act was caught on the camera, which was time and again shown on the giant screen, causing a major embarrassment for the Australian cricket. This affected the playing group and Tim Paine was made captain for the final day. Australia lost the Test and after an inquiry was done, captain Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for one year while Bancroft was banned for nine months. Smith cannot captain until two years while Warner can never lead any Australian side again. This move weakened the Australian line-up, which lost the last Test heavily and handed South Africa its first Test victory at home since readmission.

This ban, though considered too severe by many, has sent a strong message to all the players in Australia and around the world that what can be the consequences of such acts in cricket. This will affect the preparations for the World Cup 2019 where Australia will go as the defending champions. They will have to build a new team around someone who can fill the large vacancies left by Smith and Warner, considered the pillars of the batting lineup. It would also be interesting to see how the new leader manages the team. This ban has also provided other nations to beat this weakened Australian team with teams like India touring Australia later this year. Indian captain Virat Kohli also gets a chance to take the No. 1 spot in the rankings across all formats, being previously denied the opportunity by Test No. 1 Steve Smith.