The second Test match between Australia and West Indies started on Thursday. Meanwhile, David Warner, former captain of Australia’s Test team, has made a sensational disclosure through his manager James Erskine. Erskine has claimed in an interview that the ball-tampering incident during the Cape Town Test match against South Africa six years ago was due to pressure from Cricket Australia officials. There is not much fault of the players in this.
Two officers came into the dressing room
Erskine said that two executives of Cricket Australia came into the dressing room during the match. He wanted the Australian team to win the match at any cost. On this, Warner said that this can happen only when the ball reverse swings and the ball can reverse swing only when it is tampered with. Cricket Australia officials then asked the players to tamper with the ball. He wanted to win at any cost. After this, the Australian team decided to spoil the ball.
This incident was captured on a TV camera and later the accused players were banned in this case. The then captain Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for 1-1 years. Cameron Bancroft, who spoiled the ball with sandpaper, was sentenced to 6 months. Apart from this, Lifetime Leadership Ban was imposed on Warner. That is, Warner could not captain the team in the future.
Australia was defeated by an innings margin
In that Test match, the Australian team was all out for 85 runs and was defeated by an innings margin. During the match, the Australian board officials came to the dressing room and advised the team to reverse swing the ball by tampering the ball.
Ban was wrong but withdrew the appeal
Erskine said it was wrong to impose a life leadership ban on Warner for ball-tampering on South Africa tour in 2018. If the truth comes out then the names of many big players and officials of the board will also come to the fore. He claimed that when this whole ball-tampering controversy was going on, Warner’s family was very disturbed. Warner’s wife Candice also lost a child during this time, which was a big blow to the family.
In fact, David Warner, who faced a captaincy ban for life for ball-tampering in 2018, requested the Australian Cricket Board to lift the ban. He withdrew his request on Wednesday. He said that his public lynching was being attempted in the name of investigation. Because of this, his family was under a lot of stress and he withdrew the request.
What was the matter?
In 2018, the Australian team that went on a tour of South Africa was accused of ball tampering in the second match of the Test series played in Gakberha. In this match, Cameron Bancroft was seen rubbing the ball with sandpaper, so that the ball becomes rough and gets more reverse swing. Later, then-captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and Bancroft were banned by Cricket Australia. It was then said that Warner was its master planner and Captain Smith was aware of it.
Michael Clarke came in support of Warner
Many former players are also coming in support of David Warner. Former Australia captain Michael Clarke accused the board of double standards. He said that it has been 4 years since the 2018 case, and Warner is still banned from captaincy. While in this case, Steve Smith, as guilty as Warner, is captaining the Day-Night Test against the West Indies. In such a situation, the dual strategy of the board is not correct. All those involved in this matter should be stripped of the captaincy.
