The Sandpapergate is refusing to die down more than eight years after it happened. To jog your memory, Aussie batter Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera tampering with the ball using sandpaper during the third South Africa-Australia Test at Cape Town.
Later, the official version came out that then captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner orchestrated the whole thing. Smith and Warner were banned by Cricket Australia (CA) for one year. There was more punishment for Warner, as Cricket Australia decreed he would never be made captain of the national team in the future. Bancroft, on the other hand, was suspended for nine months.
After their bans ended, Bancroft played just two more Tests and scored 44 runs in those Ashes games and never played for Australia again. Before the Sandpapergate, he had played eight Tests and scored 402 runs at an average of 30.92. He was getting better, but then the controversy erupted.
At the time, the right-hander was 25 years old and had the whole career ahead of him. The Sandpapergate effectively ended his career. If a young player goes through so much negative publicity at the start of their career, no way can they stage a comeback, can they?
Warner and Smith returned, but as far as Test cricket is concerned, their performance dipped big time. At the conclusion of the third game, the left-hander was averaging 48.2 with 6,363 runs in 72 games. After that, he played 38 more Tests and averaged much lower at 37.29 before retiring in 2024.
Smith continues to be active in international cricket. Like Warner, he has seen a massive dip in his performance. After the Cape Town Test, Smith was averaging 61.37 with 6,199 runs in 64 games and at the time often drew comparisons with the great Donald Bradman for being prolific with the bat. After that game, he has averaged 49.02 with 4,804 runs in 63 games, which is an excellent average, but then it ain’t as grand.
It’s difficult to say if the Sandpapergate played a big role in the plunge of the duo’s averages. It must have, to some extent, for sure, especially in light of the fact that the controversy continues to affect them.
They have experienced many humiliating experiences since. In the 2019 World Cup in England, during an India-Australia game, Smith was booed and heckled by spectators in the stands and then India captain Virat Kohli interceded with them on Smith’s behalf.
Smith had to step down from Rajasthan Royals captaincy in the IPL too for the 2018 season. In September earlier this year, ahead of the three-ODI series in South Africa, Smith addressed the Sandpapergate and his comments show how badly it affected him. “That was a traumatic experience in my life and when I hear the flash of a camera it makes me revisit that, in a way,” he said.
Last week, former Australian batter Usman Khawaja, who played in the four-game series in South Africa in 2018, brought the Sandpapergate back to the headlines, ahead of the release of his autobiography — Sabr. Some of the released excerpts from the book revealed that only those three players were not guilty, as the entire team knew what was happening in Cape Town. Khawaja even claimed that ball-tampering had been attempted in the game before too.
Since then, Australian cricket has descended into chaos. Warner has backed Khawaja and has gone on to blame the incident for the miscarriage his wife suffered Candice suffered just days after the Cape Town Test. “It felt like it was a botched investigation; it was a quick one to get it over and done with,” he added.
Considering the controversy continues to rattle Aussie cricketers to date, it’s safe to say the Sandpapergate definitely affected the Warner and Smith’s performance. How much? That we don’t know, since the latter half of their career also kicked in around that time, and batsmen tend not to be the same as they are in the first half of their careers.