Michael Clarke says Cricket Australia must address the “jaw dropping” allegations from David Warner’s manager that CA officials encouraged players to tamper with the ball.
James Erskine told SEN Radio on Thursday that players were encouraged by CA officials to tamper with the ball after their loss to South Africa in the 2016 Hobart Test.
Erskine also said more than the three players held accountable for the Sandpapergate incident – Warner, Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith – were aware of what was happening.
“What a day for cricket,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio on Friday.
“I’ve said the last, I don’t know how long, probably since Sandpapergate has happened that I wish this thing would go away. Well, you know what, I’m going to say the opposite because yesterday is an explosion.
“This thing is going nowhere. This thing is getting out of control. This thing is getting bigger.
“I’ll tell you what, there are some nervous men waking up this morning with this comments made yesterday by David Warner’s manager James Erskine. When I saw that [news] yesterday my jaw hit the floor.”
Clarke urged CA to act quickly.
“Where’s Cricket Australia?” Clarke said. “This is the thing that needs to be clear to Cricket Australia. You cannot sweep this under the carpet and say, ‘ we’ve got a new board, we’ve got a new CEO’.
“I don’t care if you’ve got to go back to James Sutherland, pick up the phone and call him or Pat Howard or anyone else who was involved with what James Erskine is saying because you’re not sweeping this.
“You better find out what the heck has gone on. I want to know, as a past Australian captain, I want to know what is going on inside this set-up. I’m telling you now if James Erskine has that information, do you think that’s the only thing he’s got. This thing is not going away, the truth needs to be told.
“Cricket Australia needs serious help right now. They need proper help. This is every man for themselves. It is horrible.”
Clarke said the blow up would be giving South Africa a boost ahead of their test in brisbane next week.
“South Africa will be licking their lips,” Clarke said.
“This is in the lead-up. That is why I believe this is a big reason why Davey hasn’t gone through with this challenging the captaincy stuff, because he knows that if he says one thing that is off-script compared to what has been said, he puts his teammates in it.
(Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
“I feel for the boys that were involved as well because, more than anyone else, that team would want this to go away. The players in that Test match would want this to go away.
“While it doesn’t, you’re walking out on the field playing with that in the back of your mind thinking, ‘Oh my God, what are we going to see when we come off for lunch? What are we going to see when we come off for tea?’.
“I wonder what Davey is thinking as well. He walks out to bat while this is going on. He walks off, don’t worry about getting out for 20, he opens the newspaper or turns his phone on after the day’s play and says, ‘Here we go again’. It’s not going to end.”
Erskine had told SEN: “Two senior executives were in the changing room in Hobart and basically were berating the team for losing against South Africa (in 2016) and Warner said we’ve got to reverse-swing the ball. The only way we can reverse-swing the ball is by tampering with it.
“And they were told to do it.”
Erskine said of the test in South Africa that “you’d have to be a blind black Labrador (to think) there was far more than three people involved in this thing, they all got a canning and David Warner was completely villainised.”
Test legend Ian Healy revealed he was in the changerooms on the day in Hobart.
“I’m a blind Black Labrador because I don’t know of anyone else (who knew),” Healy said on his SEN show.
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“That would have to be explained in any inquiry for mine. I don’t know of any other incidents that James is talking about so David has kept that well in-house, but now James has opened David’s mouth.
“That’s the bombshell that Cricket Australia didn’t want and this independent panel should have been behind closed doors sorting out.
“I went into the dressing room that day. Mark Taylor and I went from our commentary box in Hobart to the dressing room to support the boys because they’d had a real failure against South Africa and that’s where five players were chopped.
“We went in that day and it would’ve happened that day where they were spoken to by unnamed people and said ‘we don’t pay you to do anything but win’ and that was the attitude that came out, which wasn’t good.”
Gus O
Guest
How does any of this justify a 12 month ban and loss of IPL contract and income for Steve Smith who showed absence of leadership by turning a blind eye, but did not participate in ball tampering… behaviour other players in the team are repeatedly accused of. I wonder why articles covering this incident fail to routinely refer to the letter issued by the Australian bowlers that explicitly denies any knowledge of ball tampering?
Crow
Roar Pro
Just another media distraction. Stay off social media if it offends you. There is no basis to the claim. Just outside noise. Yes a headline but really, do we need to respond to all he junk headlines offer. Grow up.
Chivas
Roar Rookie
You have to wonder, whether these guys are actually in touch with reality or if they have ever pulled on a pair of boots or watched and appreciated the dynamics of the game. They just shoot from the lip without understanding consequence. Instead of that especially considering how obviously out of touch with the game they are, you'd think they would do sone rudimentary analysis and check out any proposition before going public. But, no they think they are gods and if the thought enters their head it must be great. And these are the people running the game. Some dats I really don't think we have moved forward from the amateur days. Just now we pay more money for even dumber ideas from even more out of touch administrators.
Ex force fan
Guest
The whole sandpaper saga started when one of the ex Protea players noticed that Australia managed to get reverse swing much earlier than the Proteas in the Durban test. He told the producers to look out for attempts to tamper with the ball. It is very likely that we only scratched the surface of ball tampering saga, and that this was not an isolated incident and that more players and officials were involved. I am confident that CA doesn’t really want to get to the bottom of this.
Try Hard
Roar Rookie
Hey Clarkey, where have you been. Do us a favour and go back there. I for one, didn't miss you. I swerve anything written that has your finger prints on it. Your cricket was all about you, your commentary (thankfully brief) was all about you. So it is most likely a fact, your attempts at journalism is all about you. Not that I care anymore because I don't read it.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Why are the "CA execs" un named? Seems a pretty straight forward task to identify them and get their story. Also, would have been 30-40 people in the room so surely several people would have heard these "instructions".
DTM
Roar Rookie
I don't think it is that hard to find out. How many people in the "room"? Obviously the players - probably 13 or 14 (a couple of whom were dropped and have never played for Australia again). The coaches - 4, 5 or 6? Then you have the physios and other support staff. Healy and Taylor have admitted to being there and two (un named) CA execs. That's 20-30 people. There were probably more than that but you have enough to determine if what is claimed to have been said was actually said. Having said all that, if my employer came to me and said "your performance is not good enough, you need to cheat to get better results" I'd be looking for a new employer. Appreciate that's not practical in a national team but another alternative is to go over the head of the "execs" to the CEO. Failing that you can publicly out the employer at the time. These are grown men who should know what is right and what is wrong - to say "we did it because we were told to" is not acceptable. Also, why are the CA execs not named? Surely, there can't be more than 10 or 12 possibles - if I was a CA exec and wasn't in the room, I'd be speaking up to say "it wasn't me". Organisations make these inquiries more complicated than they need to be and it usually bites them.
Clear as mud
Guest
you're cynical, butt
Ian
Roar Rookie
Why do I feel like a David Warner autobiography is coming our way soon. Mrs Warner claiming she was verbally abused, young David making all sorts of unsubstantiated claims, and he's averaging around 20 in Test Cricket. Call me cynical, but........
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Croatia to win the World Cup!!!
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Train Wrecks lead to Rain Treks.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I agree, it's the intent of the action rather than the method
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Hey leave us out of this mess. :angry:
Takeadeepbreath
Roar Rookie
Couldn't agree more with you. Think the jnr Chanderpaul is an ole chip off Shiv and thoroughly enjoyed his resilience. It's definitely not always about winning, and I don't see the WIndies coming through against this Australian team, but they are lacking venom in their bowling and during the first 2 days, a good chunk of their attack seemed very heartless/listless. Just hoping for a more competitive ending to this test.
Jack
Guest
Didnt watch Chanderpaul batting yesterday and in Oerth. Baptism of fire for an amazing cool young bloke. Pleasure to watch. Or you think Cricket is only about who wins not how it’s played.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
:thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown:
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Did his record warrant a suspension 100 times more severe than the base punishment? Whose "base punishment" would that be?
Tempo
Roar Rookie
Did his record warrant a suspension 100 times more severe than the base punishment?
Tempo
Roar Rookie
Point me to where the law makes a distinction between the two. The ICC didn’t make any distinction with the one match suspensions handed out for the incident. It was CA which went overboard.
CPM
Roar Rookie
Are you really comparing minty flavoured saliva and original flavoured saliva to sandpaper? I mean it is SANDPAPER.