Clarke suggests bowlers would have known as CA chief dodges ball tampering issue

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has speculated that bowlers would have known about the ball-tampering plot of 2018, as Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley on Monday avoided buying into the renewed furore.

Cameron Bancroft’s cryptic remarks that the Australian bowlers may have known about the Cape Town plot has placed Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon back into the spotlight. David Saker, bowling coach at the time, hinted on Sunday that there was an element of collective responsibility needed and that the issue was not going away.

Michael Clarke has weighed in the on thr 2018 ball-tampering saga following a bombshell interview Cameron Bancroft gave last week.

Speaking on Sky Sports radio on Monday, Clarke was sceptical that bowlers wouldn’t have known.

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

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

“Please.”

Clarke suggested that what really happened 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.”

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

David Warner’s manager, James Erskine said he was also of the belief that more than three people knew the full story.

“The report that was done, they didn’t interview all the players. The whole thing was so badly handled, it was a joke,” Erskine said.

“But eventually the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, will come out and I know the whole truth. But it doesn’t serve any purpose because the Australian public over a period of time got to dislike the Australian team because they didn’t behave particularly well.

“There is absolutely no doubt that Smith, Warner and Bancroft were treated despicably. The fact of the matter is they did the wrong thing but the punishment didn’t fit the crime. I think if one or two of those players had taken legal action they would have won because of what the truth was.”

“The whole thing was so badly handled, it was a joke.”

Warner is likely to fully detail the story in an autobiography to be released when he retires.

But Hockley – interim chief executive for the best part of a year and vying to take the job on a permanent basis – would not be drawn on the erupting issue.

Asked if he had any response to Bancroft’s comments, he said, “No,” walking off as he swiftly ended a minute-long media conference.

Meanwhile, having spent a fortnight in the Maldives, Australia’s Indian Premier League contingent of around 40 players, staff, coaches and commentators arrived in Sydney on Monday morning.

They are set to spend two more weeks in hotel quarantine, which the Board of Control for Cricket in India is paying for. Some of the group – including Steve Smith, David Warner, Cummins and Glenn Maxwell – will then depart for a white-ball tour of the West Indies late next month that Hockley, speaking on a panel at the SportsNxt conference launch in Melbourne on Monday, confirmed would proceed.

Hockley said he was relieved that the nation’s top cricketers had been repatriated following the postponement of the IPL in COVID-19-ravaged India.

“We’re delighted. We’re really grateful to the BCCI for getting them home quickly and safely,” Hockley said.

“I haven’t spoken to them since they’ve landed, but obviously we’ve been in text exchange and I’m sure they’ll be very relieved and very appreciative to be home.”

He was optimistic the Windies tour would go ahead relatively seamlessly.

“We plan each tour as we go. We’ve got a bit of time now before West Indies. International cricket will need to support each other, we’ve seen last summer, with India coming here, what a great series that was, and we’re committed to supporting other cricketing nations around the world,” he said.

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