Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon have released a statement where they have pleaded innocence.
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The 2018 ball-tampering scandal that tarnished the image of Australian cricket in front of the world has unfortunately risen its ugly head yet again. One of the prime accused, Cameron Bancroft, recently gave an interview to the British newspaper The Guardian where he hinted that the bowlers knew about the sandpaper incident beforehand. Four Australian bowlers have come out against Bancroft’s claims and have urged to end the ‘rumours and innuendo’. The four bowlers, namely Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Nathan Lyon have released a statement where they have pleaded their innocence regarding the issue.
After Bancroft’s interview, Cricket Australia (CA) has said that they will not rule out further investigation should new facts come to light. The incident rocked the cricket world to its core and Steve Smith, David Warner, and Bancroft faced hefty punishment. The trio lost months of their cricketing career, in addition to the severe public humiliation. “Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers, and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory,” Bancroft said.
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke is also of the belief that the bowlers had prior knowledge about the plan. “Can you imagine that [tampered] ball being thrown back to the bowler and the bowler not knowing about it? Please,” the 2015 World Cup winning skipper said.
The quartet of bowlers that have released a statement against Bancroft’s hints has said that they respectfully request an end to the rumor-mongering and innuendos. The statement was addressed to the Australian public. “We respectfully request an end to the rumor-mongering and innuendo. It has gone on too long and it is time to move on,” it read.
Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon were all part of the side that had gone to play the series in South Africa.
To The Australian Public
We pride ourselves on our honesty. So it’s been disappointing to see that our integrity has been questioned by some journalists and past players in recent days in regard to the Cape Town Test of 2018.
We have already answered questions many times on this issue, but we feel compelled to put the key facts on the record again:
We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands
And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that ‘we must have known’ about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.
