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For seven years Cricket Australia’s skeletons lay hidden in the closest. Now, with the return of the Proteas, they are finally coming back to haunt the national side.
James Erskine’s explosive comments last week that the Australian team was told in no uncertain terms by CA executives to do anything to win following a crushing defeat to South Africa in Hobart opened a can of worms the national team never wanted to touch.
It immediately damaged CA’s hopes of repairing their fractured image, tarnished by the ugly departure of former coach Justin Langer, who was called in to facilitate a cultural makeover as much as drive high performance before being shown the door and thanked for his services earlier this year.
Ian Healy’s comments a day later only exacerbated the crisis the governing body was facing, as it gave credence to Erskine’s claim that something, at the very least, was said.
“I went into the dressing room that day,” Healy said on SENQ’s Pat and Heals.
“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.”
Cameron Bancroft talks to the umpires at Newlands after being spotted with sandpaper in 2018. AP Photo/Halden Krog
Two years later, a series of flashpoints, including a stoush between Warner and Quinton de Kock up the staircase in the pavilion and a huge send-off delivered to Steve Smith from firebrand quick Kagiso Rabada, culminated in one of the ugliest episodes in Australian sport, as newcomer Cameron Bancroft was seen stuffing sandpaper down his trousers.
It led to Bancroft, Smith and Warner copping lengthy bans, with the latter accepting a leadership ban for life.
Fast-forward more than fours year and the two nations will finally meet again in the Test arena.
How apt that the scars of Cape Town would be reopened on the eve of the series that shapes as finally awaking the Australian cricket public from its great slumber.
Six of the XI that took the field in South Africa in 2018, including Smith and an under-pressure Warner, will pull on the whites at The Gabba on Saturday, with the ghosts of Newlands still haunting the side.
Australian coach Andrew McDonald did his best to downplay the rivalry with South Africa, saying the national team had “moved on”.
“We’re not sure what’s happening inside the walls of the South African dressing room, but within the walls of ours you wouldn’t notice any distractions,” McDonald told reporters following their huge win over the West Indies in Adelaide. “We move forward.
“People are critiquing that we need to address things on the inside. We’ve moved on from that.
“The noise that’s on the outside, that’s definitely not on the inside.”
StevenSmith and Cameron Bancroft (L) face the media on March 24, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images
World No.1 Test batsman Marnus Labuschagne, who made his debut in the subsequent series after the ball-tampering scandal, also attempted to downplay the history between the two nations.
“No, I don’t actually,” Labuschagne responded, when asked whether he thought “Sandpapergate” would be a topic of conversation out on the field.
“I think we’ve sort of buried that and it’s something of the past.
“Moving forward, I don’t think either team is really going to delve into that part.
“But, like I said, I can only speak from what I think and from what our side is thinking.”
Yet, former captain Michael Clarke, who was not shy of delivering some not-so-subtle words out in the middle, said he expected the Proteas to try and get under the skin of their rivals, who sit atop the ICC Test Championship.
“Their approach to any player that was involved in that ‘Sandpapergate’, they’ve got it mate,” Clarke said on Sky Sports radio’s The Big Sports Breakfast.
“It doesn’t need to cross the line, but you can make it very clear to someone like David Warner that the Australian fans are off him.”
The scars from 2018 remain deep.
One by one the flashpoints between Australia and South Africa were recited to Nathan Lyon on the eve of the summer of cricket getting underway.
“You don’t need to name them all,” Lyon quipped during an interview with The Roar, as it moved toward the infamous series of 2018.
Australia versus South Africa might not have the history of the Ashes, nor the intensity of a series against India, but for years these two nations have got under each other’s skins.
For Lyon, it is, in large part, because of the similarities between the two nations.
“The way I look at South Africa is they’re probably the closest to Australian cricket in their mentality, the way they go about it,” he said.
“They’re very hardcore on the field but they’re also lovely guys off the field. Some of our best celebration drinks after a Test series have been with the South African cricket team. They’re very similar to the Australian cricket team.”
How Australia reacts will be a fascinating test of character, with the subject a soft point that can be easily downplayed away from the middle of the field and in the presence of media managers.
David Warner walks off the field in South Africa. Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Getty Images
Whether they can show the same restraint if the pressure starts to boil will be their biggest test mentally since the 2019 Ashes series.
“We’re clear on the way we want to play, and we don’t want to talk about that,” McDonald said.
“Hopefully it’s been evident in the way we’ve gone about it, to the people who are watching us. They’re the people who are critiquing us.
“You should see a clear style in the way that we want to play. And you’ll see the same again.”
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