"It’s absolutely nonsense"- Fanie de Villiers on Australian bowlers not being aware of sandpaper ploy
The Australian bowling quartet from the infamous Cape Town Test in 2018 claimed they didn't know that a foreign substance was being used to change the condition of the ball. However, former South African pacer Fanie de Villiers is having none of it and refuses to believe that the Aussie bowlers were unaware of the sandpaper plot.
Cameron Bancroft stirred the pot when he recently hinted that the Australian bowlers were in the know-how of things.
In the wake of Bancroft's comments, the likes of Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon released a joint statement claiming that they were unaware of the whole saga.
However, Fanie de Villiers, in an interaction with the Indian Express, refused to buy their argument and said:
"It’s absolutely impossible for Australian bowlers not to know what’s going on the ball, because you are the person that scrutinises it, you are the person that’s looking at it, you are the person that’s cleaning it, you are the person that knows exactly that one side looks this way because of looking after (the ball) and the other side doesn’t look a specific way because of the grass on the wicket. So it’s absolutely nonsense."
The former Proteas seamer believes the Australian system handled the whole sandpaper situation poorly by only punishing three players - Bancroft, David Warner and Steve Smith.
"I think from start it was obvious that they knew, and from start, the Australian system didn’t handle it properly. They should have handled it differently, and they tried to cover everything by just making two (three actually) people the culprits. It was a combined effort. The coach knew; everybody knows in a system, because you don’t hide these things in the team firstly, and secondly, it’s impossible for a bowler not to know because he can see the difference," De Villiers added.
"We didn't know a foreign substance was taken onto the field" - Australian bowlers in a joint statement
Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc recently released a joint statement where they hit back at claims stating they were aware of the sandpaper plot. The Australian bowling unit highlighted that the ball's condition had barely changed as even the umpires didn't change the red cherry after inspecting it.
"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." the Australian bowlers said in a statement.
The Australian bowlers urged everyone to move on from the incident and to bring an end to the 'rumor-mongering'.