Hoff opens up on the REAL Steve Smith | 02:12
Courtney Walsh from Fox SportsOctober 7th, 2026 12:08 pm
Allan Border was never a shrinking violet but at the end of a decorated career the former Australian captain learned just how important it was to pick your targets in a battle.
The Aussie legend had seen much in cricket but nothing prepared him for a dramatic scene on his final Test tour with Australia in South Africa for the thriller of 1994.
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Border had given Brian McMillan some lip leading into lunch and was stunned when confronted by the big South African all-rounder not long after during the break of play.
“We had had a bit of a ding-dong just before lunch in the first Test and I was sitting there and then McMillan came barging into our dressing room, just wearing a towel. But he had a bloody big Magnum with him,” Border told foxsports.com.au
“He pointed it at me and said, ‘What did you f***ing say to me?’ And, of course, I shat myself and told him I could not remember what I had said. But then he started laughing. It was a funny moment and he was a good bloke.”
Those types of war stories, and there are plenty of them from a fierce Test rivalry that resumes next Friday in Durban, are the reason Shane Warne loved touring South Africa.
“South Africans and Aussies are very similar. We love our sport. We love banter. We love sledging. We love our beer,” Warne once said.
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Border is not the only Aussie to have had a gun pulled on him when playing against the Proteas and when it comes to tough tours, few are as challenging as South Africa.
Its beauty is breathtaking and its braai grills are to die for but, as beloved Aussie Merv Hughes noted, there is a simmering edge that heightens the tension for any touring team.
From the “Sheikh of Tweak” in Warne to South Africa’s “white lightning” Allan Donald, from Jacques Kallis to Ricky Ponting and so many other champions from both nations, contests between the Southern Hemisphere powers have produced brilliant and brutal cricket.
“For a long time with Australia here, South Africa there, it was a massive rivalry and it was almost getting to the stage where it was knocking off The Ashes,” Hughes said.
But by the time the Steve Smith-led Australians arrived in South Africa in 2018, there was more than a fair share of loathing between the two cricket teams.
Australia had not lost a series in South Africa since their return leading into the tour but the Proteas had landed bitter blows on Australian soil in their three most recent tours.
And Australia was the scalp they prized above all, former skipper Dean Elgar said.
“If you look at our rugby, we just finished the Springboks versus All Blacks and that’s the greatest rivalry we have in rugby, and I’d say the Australian Test team is our greatest rival,” Elgar told Fox Cricket’s The Follow On podcast leading into the upcoming series.
“I think as characters, we’re very similar. We want to win. We’ll do anything to win. The crowds are hostile when you play away, but they will doff their cap (to you) when you play well. The competitiveness and the will to win and the hunger to win are very similar.”
The cocksure Australian team had become used to winning battles on and off the field when they arrived in 2018 desperate to atone from a debacle at home two years earlier.
They were crushing rivals at the crease – an Ashes had just been won – and outwitting the white collars who had dug the knife in after the 2016 series in the boardrooms as well.
Winning tends to paper over fractures and failures. But what the Australian team was oblivious too was that the take-no-prisoners approach that rubbed rivals up the wrong way was starting to wear thin with their own fans. No-one likes an ugly Aussie at home or abroad.
During the same summer South Africa edged India, the only other side that Aussie great Ian Chappell considered worthy of being the world’s best, setting the stage for a classic battle.
But the days Warne and Border remembered wistfully were gone and what unfolded over Australia’s ugliest ever tour wrecked reputations and shattered careers. It still carries a sting for those involved.
With Australia returning to South Africa for Test cricket for the first time since the scandalous Sandpapergate series, foxsports.com.au revisits what proved a life-changing tour for many.
In an extended set of feature stories canvassing the recollections of the stars on the field, legends broadcasting the tour and others in associated roles, the first instalment canvases the rich history and bitter battles that proved a precursor to the Test that changed it all.
Steve Smith opens up on ‘Sandpaper’ Gate | 06:20
The series that sparked South Africa’s passion for Test cricket
To reach the traumatic moment Cameron Bancroft was filmed putting a square of sandpaper back into his pocket in Cape Town eight years ago, it is worth revisiting how the fire started.
The Aussies always played their cricket hard. But playing South Africa was like facing a mirror. Take a backward step when challenged? Not a snowflake’s chance in Hell.
“It is tough cricket. They play cricket a bit like us. They play a very similar game,” Border said.
“They play hard but fair. There was always a bit of chirp. It is very similar to how we have played our game and have done forever.”
Doug Walters has never forgotten the thrashing South Africa inflicted on Australia in 1970.
His old teammate Jeff Thompson never had the chance to play against South Africa but played alongside many highly talented cricketers from the country in County cricket.
The rivalry over the past three decades has produced several fantastic series and bloody war stories, but the history would have been far richer if not for a sordid time in South Africa.
“I think more than anybody playing, I can’t stand their accent but they probably can’t stand ours (either). But they’re good sportsmen. I mean, they are pretty good at most things,” he said.
South Africa began turning what had been a one-sided rivalry on its head shortly before the Apartheid ban, preceding the 4-0 thrashing in 1970 with a dominant 3-1 victory in 1966/67.
On their return 1993, Fanie de Villiers and Donald ran riot in a famous Test at the SCG to square their first series back and followed that with another drawn series at home.
There were lots of remarkable moments in between, with the astonishing World Cup semi-final in 1999 a match fans from both nations will never forget with good reason.
Skipper Graeme Smith famously came out to bat at No.11 with a broken hand in 2009 despite the menace posed by Mitchell Johnson, a bowler who “put the fear of God” into batsmen who fell for a pair to him on debut in Perth in 2012
Barry Richards, a star of the 1970 rout of Australia, identifies the 1997 series as arguably the finest ever played between the two countries given the superstars featuring in it.
The Proteas were blessed with Jacques Kallis, Donald and Shaun Pollock and was captained by Hansie Cronje, a national hero later felled by scandal and tragedy.
So strong was the Aussie team captained by Mark Taylor that superstar-in-waiting Adam Gilchrist was a reserve in a side featuring Warne, the Waughs and Glenn McGrath.
There were some ripping performances, but none better than in the opening Test when Greg Blewitt and Steve Waugh shared a 385-run partnership.
With Warne and Michael Bevan running rampant when combining for eight wickets on a spinning deck late in the Test in Johannesburg, the Aussies posted a dominant innings win and later sealed the series courtesy of a masterful century from Mark Waugh.
It was Australia’s first series triumph in four decades, with Apartheid a key factor in the drought, but the series loss only heightened the interest in Test cricket in South Africa.
“I think that was one of the pinnacles of the rivalry because of the quality of both teams,” Richards told foxsports.com.au.
“Both sides had the highest calibre of players and it was inevitable that it would be a good series and I think that really lightened up Test cricket in South Africa, because everyone was raving about the high quality of play.
“The landscape has changed quite considerably since those days – one-day cricket was around and was part and parcel of it – but the whole focus then was on Test cricket.”
Australia to play away to South Africa | 00:32
Rising tensions as the Aussies are labelled a “pack of dogs”
The dogs were barking in Cape Town in 2014, four years before the most infamous moment in Australian cricket, as the tourists zeroed in on South African star Faf du Plessis.
The future South African skipper, who had faced a charge of ball tampering a year earlier, had the temerity to challenge the Aussies aggressive approach midway through the Test.
It included a particularly heated moment in which Michael Clarke and Dale Steyn engaged in a terse discussion that the champion South African bowler never forgave the Aussie for.
David Warner had already been fined in the series for suggesting the South Africans had used dubious methods to gain swing in Port Elizabeth.
Neil Manthorp, a well-connected South African journalist, told Supersport Clarke accused the superb Steyn of cheating after a contentious DRS review in the Cape Town Test.
“You can call Steyn pretty much any name under the sun and it will be water off a duck’s back, but don’t call him a cheat,” Manthorp said.
James Pattison later brushed it off as a bit of “argy bargy” but Clarke, having shaken hands with Steyn after play, apologised publicly for going too far but the rival quick was angered.
“I know he apologised in the media and I should be playing this down, but the day he comes and shakes my hand and says ‘I really mean what I said’ and behaves the way he should, maybe then I will (forgive him),” Steyn said months after the incident.
And then the dogs started barking, with du Plessis taunted by the Aussies when he picked the ball up in the infancy of the Test and again when he was dismissed late in the match.
Long-term chief executive James Sutherland hardly endeared himself to the South Africans and nor, necessarily, the Aussies either when discussing the behaviour in the aftermath.
“That is just typical (of) childish cricketers, but he asked for that with his comments a few days earlier. Some people might not see the humour in that, but I did,” he told Melbourne radio.
When the South Africans arrived in Australia for a white ball series later that year, it was clear they were still stinging and that any friendship in the rivalry was dissipating.
“I see that it is part of the game but they can’t expect us to be mates with them off the field, then, if they get very personal,” captain AB de Villiers said.
‘Hollywood sh*t’ and the Test of long knives
When South Africa toured Australia on the return bout in 2016, Steyn could scarcely believe what he was witnessing in Hobart as he reached for a celebratory cold one in the middle of the night.
It was a tick after 3am in South Africa, and not long after midday in Australia and the tourists had just torn the hosts apart in Hobart, and Steyn was loving what he was watching.
The Tasmanian “timeline of terror” made for awful reading as the Aussies were dismissed for 85 within 33 overs after losing the first Test of the series by 177 runs at the WACA.
Eventually thrashed by an innings and 80 runs to lose the series, the Aussies were embarrassed and then berated by the administration
After the Sandpaper-gate scandal, he told Fox Cricket in an interview that aired on Boxing Day in 2018 that Sutherland and Australia’s high performance manager Pat Howard had entered the rooms with a toxic ultimatum; “We don’t pay you to play. We pay you to win.”
The Aussies were no longer the world’s top Test team and selectors got to work with sweeping changes, with five players omitted for the pink ball Test in Adelaide.
But there was another drama in Hobart that, although it did not seem the biggest deal at the time, added further fuel to the simmering tensions between the two sides.
Du Plessis was filmed shining the ball with saliva while chewing on a mint and subsequently charged and later convicted of ball tampering, much to the disgust of his teammates including Hashim Amla, who later defended the skipper in front of teammates at the MCG.
“The reason everyone is here is to stand together, really, and to show solidarity to something … we thought was actually a joke,” he said.
“It is not April but the allegations against Faf was … a really ridiculous thing. As a team, we’re standing strong. We’ve done nothing wrong. It is basically a joke.”
The South Africans ultimately won the series 2-1 but, as Elgar told Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On last week, the way they were treated left a sour taste from the tour.
“What happened in Australia with Faf when he was shining the ball using the mint and then it turned into ‘mint gate’, and then we had the media at the airport, and it was like weird Hollywood shite,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we just wanted to play hard and fair and sometimes things happen, shit happens, but people don’t realise that we’re also human beings. We’re not robots. We do make errors. But then, with the media hype, they just pump it up so much. And I recall the TV cameras – it was like we were going through a bloody film studio, the way it was conducted at a time.
“Then it becomes a bit more of a drama series and we had to make a stance against what was happening with that where Hash was our spokesperson and the voice and we all stood in unity around that.
“And then obviously the next series is in South Africa and the media just, like, bring this story up again and then something else happens and then it just snowballs and it just takes away the actual good cricket that was played, which is a bit sad.”
Dean Elgar opens up on storied career | 32:55
Boiling point and the makings of a ‘Netflix documentary’
When Fox Cricket’s expert analyst Brendon Julian arrived in South Africa in 2018, he could sense something was brewing given the tension he felt from both nations.
“There is always something against South Africa. I mean, you just can’t get away from it. And then by 2018, obviously, it was at boiling point,” Julian said.
The increasing antipathy between the two sides was only part of the reason for the tension, for the Aussie stars were also at war with Cricket Australia and its administration.
Sutherland’s intervention in Hobart was one thing. Exacerbating the bitterness was the elongated argy-bargy over the Memorandum of Understanding that preceded the Ashes.
At one stage during the bitter 10 month dispute the players were not paid as they held out against any changes to the revenue sharing agreement but CA were equally happy to point out that the nation’s female cricketers were included in the MOU for the first time.
But as one episode in Australian cricket and the players lost all respect for the administration.”
Even a triumphant Ashes victory at home had not eased the angst the Aussies held for the ruling body and they arrived in South Africa steaming, feeling “pissed off and abrasive”.
Champion off-spinner Nathan Lyon had promised the Australians would “headbutt the line” of what passed for hard cricket and what strayed beyond that leading into the series.
But as Code Sports reported, the Aussies made their first misstep by requesting the stump microphones be turned down. It signalled they were ready to play rough, but also served as a red rag to a bull for the broadcasters to be on alert for anything juicy that was said.
The first day in Durban at the start of March was an absorbing affair. Smith and David Warner both made centuries but the Aussies were 5-255 when bad light stopped play.
Mitch Marsh was narrowly denied a century before the tourists got on top on the second day.
The fearsome Mitch Johnson had retired, but fellow left-armed paceman Mitch Starc was starting to realise his ferocious potential and ripped through the hosts for 162 on Day 2.
This also raised hackles. Starc has repeatedly proven himself to be magnificent in the eight years since, but the angst of previous series put every good deed under a microscope.
Warner, too, had his hands heavily bandaged, which furthered South Africans’ suspicions.
“The guys in commentary (were) singling out Davey, saying, ‘why has he got this tape on his hands?’” Julian said.
“The South Africans knew the Australians were doing something. They wanted to make sure the broadcasters SuperSport were in their corner. If they were doing something, they wanted to catch them out.”
Being caught in the act would occur on a shameful day far later in the series, not in Durban.
Instead Warner and Cameron Bancroft, who topscored with 53, put Australia in a dominant position when scoring 227 to leave South Africa chasing a near-impossible target of 417.
But it was on Day 4 that things exploded with the Australians boisterous and bullying.
The Aussies erupted in glee after AB de Villiers was run out by Warner and Lyon without scoring, with the former taunting centurion Aiden Markram while the latter dropped the ball near the prone South African superstar’s head, for which he later apologised.
Was it headbutting the line or an accident? South Africa suspected the former and the incident prompted a searing critique from Graeme Smith, who was working in commentary.
“The Aussies were pretty fired up at that time pushing for a victory,” he told cricket.com.au
“But Lyon is an experienced cricketer. I think he will probably say it was unnecessary himself.
“We’ve got used to Davey over the years. I think the less interest you take in him, the better. He can be a bit of a fool at times. It’s just best to let him be.”
The South Africans were stewing. And De Villiers was not the right man to motivate, with the superstar subsequently putting the Australians to the sword for the rest of the series.
The stoushes on the field were one thing. More extraordinary was an explosive altercation between members of both teams at tea late in Day 4 after they had left the ground.
Security footage showed Warner remonstrating with Quinton de Kock in a stairwell before he was restrained by Usman Khawaja and dragged away by Steve Smith.
South African skipper Faf du Plessis emerged from the showers and is pictured speaking with Aussie wicketkeeper Tim Paine in what Elgar described as a surreal scene.
“Obviously everything started in Durban with Warner and Quinnie de Kock. A few words are exchanged and the next thing there is a push and a shove in a little change room gallery,” Elgar told foxsports.com.au
“Then it’s both teams standing out in the change rooms and then that gets magnified because the footage gets leaked to the media and then here we go. Here comes another documentary. That’s a Netflix documentary right there.”
Marnus set to open in WTC Final | 05:27
The days that followed were contrasting for both nations.
The Aussies were on the defensive, even though the feisty Warner escaped a ban for the incident but was fined 75 per cent of his match fee and issued with three demerit points, while the South African wicketkeeper was also issued with a lower tier fine and sanction.
A day later the Aussie expressed his disgust at what he said were vile comments made about his wife. In a tit-for-tat saga, the South Africans responded by claiming he had become personal in his comments about de Kock, which Warner vehemently denies.
What the Proteas also did was head to a golf resort for a team bonding session before the Port Elizabeth Test where they vowed never to let the Australians “do that to us again”.
“Australia beat us well and truly in that Test. They actually cleaned us up properly,” Elgar said.
“(But) we went away after that. We went to PE a couple of days early – we actually went to a golfing resort and we played golf as a team – and we sat down and just said, ‘Whatever happens out there, they’re not going to do that to us again.’ And I think that that message was so powerful, because we still had the two Tests or Three tests to play.”
Their intent was clear from the opening session of the second Test as Kagiso Rabada ripped through the Aussies. But his shoulder-bump of a bemused Smith furthered tensions.
Even more bewildering was the decision of senior South African Cricket officials to wear masks in that ground of Sonny Bill Williams, who had a tryst with Warner’s wife Candice many years before they started their relationship. The behaviour was ugly and immature.
After play the fiery Rabada, who had five demerit points on his record, was charged for his contact with Smith and his record dictated that he would be banned for the next two Tests.
Rabada races clock for Aussies | 00:48
The action on the field was important as well and Elgar is proud of the role he played in that Test alongside Alma when the Aussies had the ball swinging sideways on the second day.
The vow they had made at the golf resort was at the front of his mind. Don’t give in to the Aussies. He made a gritty 57 from 197 balls, and Amla 56 from 148 deliveries, which set the stage for de Villiers to feast on a tiring Australian attack when producing a fine century.
“The ball started reversing again, but we made a pact that whoever is in has to look after that reversing ball, because that’s when your bowlers are just so lethal,” Elgar said.
“I think we only scored like 40-odd runs or 50 runs, but the ball was reversing miles and we were looking after those balls so that once the second new ball comes in, then our batters can come in and actually flourish and take over from there.
“So we actually looked like the guys that were quite shit but, well, I felt like I was doing my job and then de Villiers came in and put the cherry on the cake.”
Rabada returned the next day and bowled with venom, torching the Australians.
He gave Warner an almighty send off after bowling him, with his brilliance leading South Africa to a six-wicket win to square the series. But then the news trickled through.
The ICC had upheld the ban. The South African sensation was out for the series.
But so much had already been lost as the two sides boarded flights to Cape Town, with good sportsmanship and respect for rivals torn apart by the toxic win at all costs mentality.
And the assessment Warne, who always read the game so well on and off the field, had made a year earlier when lamenting the cost of a bitter rivalry was eerily prescient.
“When we played against each other … it was as hard a cricket that you would ever play, South Africa and Australia was back then,” Warne said on The Dan Nichols Show in 2017.
“But it was the good old days where afterwards you would all sit in the rooms and have a beer and enjoy each other’s company. And I think that it is a real shame that it is missing from the game now.”
Source: www.foxsports.com.au
