A hidden act had saved Australia from its deepest shame… then came a sickening snub

Hoff opens up on the REAL Steve Smith | 02:12
Courtney Walsh from Fox SportsOctober 8th, 2026 6:00 am

Australian great Allan Border held his head in his hands, in complete disbelief at what he had just seen shared on the big screen at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town.

He had told the Aussies they were being watched and implored them to be careful. The host broadcaster was tracking their every move, he stressed to them. Don’t do anything stupid.

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But now everyone at Newlands was watching footage of Cameron Bancroft shoving a square of sandpaper down the inside of his pants. And Border felt sick to his stomach.

The former Australian captain was commentating on an increasingly heated series for Fox Cricket, which was taking the feed of a South African broadcaster, and had read the play leading into the Cape Town Test.

“I must admit that being behind the scenes, you’re seeing what the directors are looking for, what is being said behind the scenes in the commentary position,” Border told foxsports.com.au

“We basically told Steven Smith and the hierarchy that they had to be very careful if they were doing anything in particular, because the cameras were following them. The cameras weren’t following the South African bowlers, just our guys, and particularly David Warner.”

Late on Day 3 of the third Test of the spiteful series, with the pivotal Test in the balance and South African star AB de Villiers at the crease, it all exploded for Australia.

The footage was damning. Cameron Bancroft, who had batted so well a day earlier to give Australia a chance, was shown moving the square from his pocket to the inside of his strides.

PART ONE: ‘What did you f***ing say?’ How guns, scandal and toxic ultimatum lit Sandpapergate fuse

If this series was to become a Netflix documentary, as South Africa’s centurion in the Test Dean Elgar has flagged, the damning slow-motion sequence would feature at length.

At the end of the over, after being approached by umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, Bancroft pulled a sunglasses cover from his pocket in a bid to deceive those officiating. Nothing to see here, the action suggested.

The crime had already been committed. This was the first step in a disastrous cover-up.

Panic ensued. The broadcaster showed Australian coach Darren Lehmann on a walky talky radioing reserve batter Peter Handscomb, who was seated on the boundary.

The Victorian then heads out to the field to speak with Bancroft, who was playing just his eighth Test, presumably to tell him that the gig might be up. And Border could not believe it.

“It was just stupid,” the Fox Cricket expert analyst said.

“I put my captain’s hat and it is an interesting one because, I mean, bowlers have been fiddling with cricket balls since the year dot to try to gain some advantage, by picking seams or whatever they do. It’s been going on forever.

“But when you see it unfold like it did, you as a previous captain saying ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it,’ but as a commentator at the time, it is hard to separate the two roles and be thinking, ‘Oh. Would I be doing this now?’ I really hope I wouldn’t be, but it was just a tough one.”

Border, as famously competitive as any Australian to star in the red ball game, was giving the 2018 cohort an out given the pressure at the time but his former fast bowler Merv Hughes is certain of one thing.

He is adamant Border would have insisted on playing tough cricket that was within the rules.

“I think that the big thing is if you’re told as a player to do anything you can do to win a game, I would think, ‘Anything within the rules’,” he said.

“When people ask me about (that series), they say, ‘Oh. Would you be worried about Cricket Australia?’, I say, ‘Mate. It wouldn’t be Cricket Australia I’d have to worry about. It would be Allan Border.

“He would be asking, ‘Who’s f***ing scratching this ball?’”

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From the tea time fracas in Durban to Kagiso Rabada’s shoulder charge of Smith in Port Elizabeth,the tension between the two sides was increasingly toxic.

Eight years on from the infamous series, the Australians still in the team have moved on and while preparing for the current tour beginning on Friday in Durban, largely kept their counsel.

Champion fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was still in his 20s when the saga unfolded and told Fox Cricket at the SCG last month he remembered being shocked by the intensity of feeling during the series leading into the Cape Town blunder.

“I was obviously a lot younger then and hadn’t played much cricket for Australia, but the fierceness I found was just, not confronting, but it was just over the top really from both sides, probably,” he told foxsports.com.au.

“I haven’t looked back at games and haven’t looked back at incidents at all, or anything like that, but just my recollection which is 10 years on now, so it’s probably a bit foggy now, but just the fierceness of it (felt) sort of over the top in a lot of things.

“I don’t think I’ve played a series like that since, to be honest. I feel like it’s a lot different now. (It is) still hard cricket and it’s serious cricket, but you might know a lot of the guys more now as well.

“So … from a friendlier point of view, you want to get on top of them so you can give it to them a few months later during another franchise competition. But (back then) it was just that everything was a bit over the top, I think.”

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If the South Africans left Durban stewing, it was the Australians who were positively steaming by the time they arrived in Cape Town in late March, 2018.

There was an air of disbelief that Rabada, having been issued with a two match ban for “making inappropriate and deliberate physical contact” with Smith when giving him a send-off in Port Elizabeth, was subsequently cleared to play.

The Aussies were already on edge and a social media post from Vernon Philander a few days before alleging Smith was “just as guilty” as Rabada had heightened their hackles, with the Protea later claiming he had been hacked.

Smith was incredulous with the decision and on March 21 outlined his anger at Philander, calling the allegation a “load of garbage” and expressed his surprise at not being asked to offer his version of events in the hearing.

“I certainly think he bumped me a little harder than it looked,” Smith said.

“It’s pretty interesting when you’re looking for evidence and those kinds of things, (that) the other person involved not getting asked about it is pretty interesting.

“What’s the point of over-celebrating and getting in the face of a batter? You’ve already won the battle. But they’ve obviously decided what’s deliberate contact and what’s not and apparently it wasn’t.”

A feeling of persecution is not the best frame of mind to be in and the Australians were clearly rattled as they prepared for the third Test.

That Rabada, who had bowled brilliantly when not behaving badly in Port Elizabeth, was playing added to their misery, with good reason.

As Elgar told Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On in late September, the South African speedster is motivated by sticking it to the Aussies.

“That guy gets out of bed to play against Australia. He gets so fired up,” he said.

Rabada races clock for Aussies | 00:48

Among the curiosities of Cape Town is that Australia was right in the game when what proved to be a monstrous brain fade occurred late on the third day.

Having batted obstinately against the swinging ball in Port Elizabeth in what proved a momentum swinging innings, Elgar was superb once again in Cape Town.

The South African star, who retired from first class cricket late last month, carried his bat when finishing not out on 141, surviving despite some magnificent bowling from Pat Cummins as the Proteas reached 311.

It is a largely overlooked century, as Eglar told Fox Cricket’s The Follow On podcast when saying “it just doesn’t get spoken about” given the extraordinary events later in the Test.

That is a shame because it was the third time the gritty opener carried his bat for South Africa, which equalled the record in Tests previously held by West Indian star Desmond Haynes.

Warner produced a blistering cameo when given the chance, batting as though he wanted to blast all the frustrations he was feeling away when racing to 30 off just 14 balls before being bowled by Rabada in the sixth over.

But with Morne Morkel, Philander and Rabada proving a daunting triple threat, the Aussies were all out for 255, with Bancroft top-scoring with 77.

When the Aussies awoke on the third day, they were well in the match. Even with Aiden Markram batting superbly, the challenge was not beyond them.

At tea the Proteas had reached 3-150, giving them a lead of 206 with seven wickets in hand. But what unfolded in that break sparked Australia’s moment of shame.

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‘Nobody will ever be satisfied’

David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and coach Darren Lehmann paid a massive price for the decisions made at tea, but conjecture remains.

In the years since, debate has raged as to how widespread the knowledge was that the Aussies were going to get into the ball with sandpaper after tea.

The bowlers are adamant they were unaware of the plan, having issued a statement not long after what unfolded and again when Bancroft discussed the affair years later during a stint playing County cricket.

There are claims that everyone was in on it, that they had to be. But others who were there state that it denies a truth about cricket teams, that while they broadly represent a club, state or nation, sides regularly break down into smaller cliques.

As Tim Paine, who was the wicketkeeper at the time, wrote in his book The Price Paid, the make up of the rooms in Cape Town adds to the divide.

A shower and a toilet block sit in the centre of the room, forcing players to sit either side for the duration of the match, and the coaches are in another room.

“I suspect nobody will ever be satisfied they know the full story of how we got to this place. I’m not sure I even understand myself,” Paine wrote.

“A lot of commentators have said since that everybody has to know what’s going on in a dressing room, but that is rubbish. (There are) conversations in corners, thoughts kept private, things shared and things not shared.

“Something can happen in one room and the people in the other two would have no idea.”

What is not disputed is the disaster that unfolded that left Border stupefied and feeling sick to the stomach and sparked a massive crisis in Australian cricket.

“Everyone out there was shocked when they looked up on the big screen and saw Cameron Bancroft with a piece of sandpaper in his hand,” Paine, who is now coaching the Australian A team, wrote in his book.

“I was stunned. We all were. I can let you in on the fact that over many years in the game I’d heard talk of guys taping small pieces of sandpaper on their fingers, but this was next level. It was a Test match and it was on the big screen and it looked terrible.

“My heart sank. I was thinking, ‘What the f***?’ A sense of dread came over us all. They kept showing images on the screen and the umpires called Bancroft over. You’ve all seen the footage.”

Steve Smith opens up on ‘Sandpaper’ Gate | 06:20

Former English captain Michael Vaughan was stunned, though not by the tampering allegations – anyone who has played cricket will understand there are dark arts involved with the ball – but rather with the method used.

“We’re a few years after it … but I know now that the one thing that you’re not allowed to do is take a piece of sandpaper out onto the pitch,” the Fox Cricket expert analyst said.

“I always say that through many years in county cricket, you’d stand next to the square leg umpire and the square leg umpires would offer you something from their pocket, a sweet, or you’d say, ‘Oh, can I have some sun cream?’. “Whether people like it or not, whatever they give you ends up on the ball. In the days of saliva, you could put it on the ball, and that’s the nature of what cricket was.

“I know some people will say, ‘Oh, that’s cheating.’ No, it’s not. It was just on your body or in your mouth and it’s going to end up on the ball.

“But the one thing I’ve never asked for at square leg is to be given sandpaper. That’s where the line stopped.”

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A scandal had erupted.

The Aussies managed to snare de Villiers and Faf du Plessis before bad light ended play and when they returned to the rooms confusion was rampant.

In the rooms it was reported that team manager Gavin Dovey and media manager Kate Hutchison were deep in debate as to how to approach it.

Lehmann and Dovey met with Smith and Bancroft toar stunned silence

The Australian captain decided it was best to meet it head on and front a press conference alongside Bancroft, which proved a disastrous calculation.

The cover-up that began on the field when the Western Australian misled the umpires before concealing the sandpaper continued in the press conference when Bancroft claimed it was sticky tape that had granules of dirt on it.

Smith conceded he and others had known of the plot to tamper with the ball, said it was the first time it had occurred and that he was both sorry and embarrassed by the actions, but his use of the phrase ‘leadership group’ implicated others.

He insisted he would not be standing down, with the Australians mistakenly believing at that stage that the penalties would be in-line with ICC precedents.

But as Brendon Julian told Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On, he could not believe the course of action given the likelihood they would dig a deeper hole.

“God, I’m a broadcaster and have been working in cricket for 20 years (and) it’s really bloody hard to get an interview with a player,” Julian said.

“But all of a sudden in that situation, they just threw him (Smith) straight out the door. I just felt it was poorly handled (and the) media management was shocking.

“I felt that was pretty bad and then all of a sudden … it went to the highest level and probably the Australian government and the Prime Minister were having a few issues … and thought, you know what? This will be great. This will take you know our problems off the front page. We’ll use Australian cricket as our scapegoat.”

Back in the hotel room that night, the Aussies were restless and upset.

Jon Holland, who was touring as a spinner, said Warner put up his hand to accept part of the responsibility for what had occurred and that it was a “pretty hard watch” to see the trio left to shoulder the entire responsibility.

“Once we got back to the hotel, we did sit as a group around what had happened and who was going to take the blame,” Holland told Code Sports.

“And to Davey’s credit, from what I remember, he did put his hand up and say that he would take some of the responsibility, but not all of it.”

As Paine wrote; “I didn’t sleep and I reckon there wasn’t an Australian in that Cape Town hotel that wasn’t lying awake, wondering what the hell had just happened and how it would be received.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull branded it a “terrible disgrace” and demanded Cricket Australia act “decisively and emphatically”.

“They now have to make sure that this great national game, this great international game that is synonymous with fair play is once again a game that is played by champions that everyone can look up to,” he said.

“This has been a shocking affront to Australia.”

Back in Melbourne the administration was both shocked and also steaming, though chief executive James Sutherland looked shattered by what had unfolded.

At that stage he was yet to speak to Smith, which was considered bizarre given the circumstances, though Sutherland promised an investigation that would be thorough.

There was still a Test match to finish and Australia, despite the debacle, were still in the match and the series heading into Day 4 in Cape Town.

But they were shattered and the devastation deepened when Smith and Warner told their teammates prior to play that they would be stepping down from their leadership roles.

Paine was named captain for the rest of the Test by selector Trevor Hohns, which the wicketkeeper later wrote in his autobiography was the first he heard about his promotion.

As they ran on to the field, the abuse from the crowd was particularly spiteful and there was little to celebrate, with the Aussies feeling as though “the earth had been kicked out from under our feet”.

South Africa’s tail wagged strongly and they set Australia an improbable target of 430 to win the most torturous Test they would feature in.

Remarkably in the circumstances, Warner and Bancroft forged a decent opening partnership of 57, but when the West Aussie was run out, it precipitated a staggering collapse.

The Aussies could only manage another 50 runs, were beaten by 322 runs on the scoreboard and left the field completely broken in spirit, pondering what the future held.

The ICC bans had come through during play, with Smith banned for the final Test of the series and Bancroft issued with three demerit points for his actions.

In his press conference, Paine said the pair were “not great” and struggling. They were not alone.

This was Australian cricket’s darkest hour. And while the ICC had made their ruling on the incident, the Aussies left Newlands certain things were about to get much worse.

Source: www.foxsports.com.au