Gilchrist said that ball-tampering has been an issue in the sport for a long time and slammed CA for never delving into the issue.
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Former Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist has slammed the country’s highest cricketing body, Cricket Australia (CA), of not taking the 2018 ball-tampering case as seriously as it should have. The former wicket-keeper batter said that CA should have done a thorough investigation into the matter and go deeper into the problem of ball-tampering. He also said that it was a chance for CA to have made a strong statement against actions that might compromise the gentleman’s game. The incident resulted in Cameron Bancroft, David Warner, and Steve Smith handed year-long bans from the sport. The whole incident led to tight scrutiny of the Aussies’ win-at-any-cost mentality.
“There was an opportunity for CA if they were going to make such a strong statement they needed to do a more thorough investigation to work out where the root of the problem was,” Gilchrist said. “Anyone would be naive to think people were not aware of what was going on about ball maintenance. I don’t think Cricket Australia wanted to go there. They did not want to go any deeper than that superficial example of ball-tampering,” he added.
In a recent interview, Bancroft made a statement that threw the entire ball-tampering into the global spotlight yet again. The Aussie indicated that some of the bowlers in the side at the time had known about the sandpaper plot which cost him, Warner, and Smith several months of cricket.
Gilchrist said that ball-tampering has been an issue in the sport for a substantial period of time and slammed CA for never delving into the issue.
“They did not investigate to see whether it was systemic, had that been going on and on and on. Around the cricketing globe it was widely accepted a lot of teams were doing it,” the 49-year-old said. “You haven’t seen any reverse swing since that incident as a general statement across world cricket. Very minimal reverse swing. The positive that has come out with that punishment is it seems to have been eradicated from the game because it was getting out of control around the entire cricket world, not just the Australian cricket team. They (CA) did not want to go any deeper than that superficial example of ball-tampering,” he concluded.
CA, however, have said that they would rule out reopening the investigation after Bancroft’s most recent remarks.
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