How do Australian players plan and implement the Sandpaper Saga?

(Umpires questioning Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith about the yellow tape)

Imagine you are playing gully cricket and your team is in desperate need of a win. What are you going to do? Cheating? Probably not. But if you are someone related to Australian cricket, the mindset is different. The 2018 ball tampering scandal is the perfect example of how Australian cricket has been looking to claim the win at any cost. However, in the pre sandpaper incident, Australia was going through a rough time and was constantly under pressure to reclaim its position at the top. Was this the reason why Australian cricketers took such a big decision on the field?

Australian cricket between 2015-2018 under Steve Smith

After grabbing the ICC ODI World Cup in 2015, Australian cricket was at their highest moment and was preparing to enter a transition phase as some of their star players such as Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson, Brad Haddin and others. With the new generation taking over, the captaincy was handed to Steve Smith who was ruling the 2015 year with his sublime Ashes and ODI World Cup stint. However, things didn't go as smoothly and hence Australian cricket started suffering major defeats.

Under Steve Smith, Australia lost the 2016 test series at home against South Africa and even failed to win against Sri Lanka in the subcontinent by 3-0. Besides this, the team suffered a Group Stage exit in the 2016 T20 World Cup and also failed to qualify for the next round in the 2017 Champions Trophy too. This all led to criticism and hence the Cricket Australia chief, James Sutherland told Steve Smith ‘We don't pay you to play, we pay you to win’.

Australia vs South Africa Test Series 2018

After regaining the Ashes at home, Australia were confident of bringing their A game against South Africa too. Elite cricketers like Shane Warne, Graeme Smith, Shaun Pollock and others were excited because the two cricketing giants were all set to face each other in a 4-match competitive series.

1st Test: A Story of Australia’s arrogance

The Test series between Australia and South Africa began with a lot of hopes and excitement and it proved to be an entertaining one. The first test went in Australia’s favour with Mitchell Starc being the hero for the team as he ended up with 9 wickets in the match and showed how good he is when the ball starts reverse swinging. However, the first test was marked with several incidents that showed how Australia has the habit of giving tough days to their opponents.

Australia vs South Africa 1st Test
Australia	South Africa
351 (110.4 overs)	162 (51.4 overs)
Mitchell Marsh 96(173)	AB de Villiers 71* (127)
Keshav Maharaj 5/123 (33.4 overs)	Mitchell Starc 5/34 (10.4 overs)
227 (74.4 overs)	298 (92.4 overs)
Cameron Bancroft 53 (83)	Aiden Markram 143 (218)
Keshav Maharaj 4/102 (29.4 overs)	Mitchell Starc 4/75 (18 overs)
Result: Australia won by 118 runs

(David Warner giving an aggressive send-off to AB de Villiers after he was run out)

The first sight of rough things started when Nathan Lyon ran out AB de Villiers and threw the ball on him while the South African batter was lying on the ground. At the same time, David Warner gave an aggressive send-off to him and showed why they have always been a side that loves to dominate. In the same match, another incident that came out was of a fight between David Warner and Quinton de Kock, where they both were walking up in the dressing room and were having a go at each other where the South African batter made some derogatory comments over Warner's wife.

These videos went viral on the internet and David Warner was fined 75% of his match fees along with having 3 demerit points to his name while Quinton de Kock received just one demerit point. Seeing all this, AB de Villiers tweeted on his X handle that “This series will be one to remember”.

2nd Test: South Africa's way of giving it back to the Aussies

After the conclusion of the 1st test, things were heated up between both the teams and hence the series was going to be a cracker one for the fans. The start of the second test saw Kagiso Rabada being the star of the game who got the tricks of Mitchell Starc reversing the ball and hence used them against the Aussies well. South Africa finally levelled the series and hence the fans were now eagerly waiting for the 3rd test to begin.

(Kagiso Rabada celebrating aggressively after dismissing Steve Smith)

Australia vs South Africa 2nd Test
Australia	South Africa
243 (71.3 overs)	382 (118.4 overs)
David Warner 63 (100)	AB de Villiers 126* (146)
Kagiso Rabada 5/96 (21 overs)	Pat Cummins 3/79 (24 overs)
239 (79 overs)	102/4 (22.5 overs)
Usman Khawaja 75 (136)	AB de Villiers 28 (26)
Kagiso Rabada 6/54 (22 overs)	Nathan Lyon 2/44 (9 overs)
Result: South Africa won by 6 wickets

Just like the first test match, this match was also surrounded by the controversies that followed up. After dismissing the Australian captain Steve Smith, Kagiso Rabada celebrated aggressively and even brushed his shoulder against the Australian player which went on to be a big issue for the South African pacer. He was suspended from playing the 3rd and 4th test matches but was later cleared on to be a part of the team. The same match saw him again celebrating aggressively after dismissing David Warner.

3rd Test: The day when Australians were caught cheating on the field

With the series scoreline being 1-1, everyone was excited to see how the rest of the series unfolded and no one knew that the 3rd test match at Newlands Cricket Ground would be the most remembered test match for every cricket fan. South Africa completed another win against the Australian team in the series and got the scoreline 2-1 as Dean Elgar along with Morne Morkel handled the stage well. Both of them gave no chance to the opposition team to regain momentum in the match.

Australia vs South Africa 3rd Test
South Africa	Australia
311 (97.5 overs)	255 (69.5 overs)
Dean Elgar 141* (284)	AB de Villiers 126* (146)
Pat Cummins 4/78 (26 overs)	Pat Cummins 3/79 (24 overs)
373 (112.2 overs)	107 (39.4 overs)
Aiden Markram 84 (145)	David Warner 32 (67)
Pat Cummins 3/67 (27 overs)	Morné Morkel 5/23 (9.4 overs)
Result: South Africa won by 322 runs

Apart from the result of the match, the main thing that followed up was the Sandpaper gate which started after the Australian cricket team was pushed back in the 3rd test and South Africa was having a 185 run lead and looked all set in the match. This is where Cameron Bancroft came out and produced a yellow sticky tape to rub and shine the ball so as to start the reverse swing.

However, the idea didn't go off well and the Camera team was quick to identify the mischievous things going on and played the video on the big screen where Cameron Bancroft is rubbing something on the ball and then shoves it down in his pants. What followed after this was a complete mess as in the press conference, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft admitted to Ball Tampering.

(Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft addressing the media in Australia after the Ball Tampering Scandal)

With this, the Cricket Australia took action against all the involved players and hence Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for 1 year from playing any form of cricket while Cameron Bancroft was banned for 9 months. All the 3 players returned to Australia after the match and had press conferences where the whole world saw them apologizing for their deeds.

Later on, it was found that the whole leadership group was involved in the ball tampering plan and hence the Australian Prime Minister even said that it was shocking that the plan of cheating was going on in the dressing room. Even in an interview, England's star bowler Stuart Broad came up with allegations against the Aussie side that in the 2017 Ashes too, they were hiding something in their pockets and were constantly using something to change the condition of the ball.

4th Test: Adding more salt to the wounds of hurt Australians

With all the drama and stuff going on, the 4th test match was just a formality between both the sides as the Australians were already down with their mindset while South Africa was at the top of their game. From the Australian side, Tim Paine was elected as the new captain. However, the result of the match remained the same as South Africa took the match and won the series 3-1 and it was Kagiso Rabada who took the Player of the Series award.

Australia vs South Africa 3rd Test
South Africa	Australia
488 (136.5 overs)	221 (70 overs)
Aiden Markram 152 (216)	Tim Paine 62 (96)
Pat Cummins 5/83 (28.5 overs)	Vernon Philander 3/30 (18 overs)
344/6d (105 overs)	119 (46.4 overs)
Faf du Plessis 120 (178)	Joe Burns 42 (80)
Pat Cummins 4/58 (18 overs)	Vernon Philander 6/21 (13 overs)
Result: South Africa won by 492 runs

Apart from all the cricket stuff that followed, the series remained one of the most competitive as well as a controversial one. With what started as a battle between an arrogant Aussie side to a dangerous South Africa side, the series ended up with South Africa coming out at the top while the Aussies went down and looked at how they could get back the tag of Champions rather than that tag of Cheats.