Ball-tampering reverberations endure as Australia return to scene of the crime

In the early hours of Thursday morning Australian time, Steve Smith and David Warner return to Newlands in Cape Town to take on South Africa in a cricket match. As benign as it seems, the event will mark nearly two years since the sandpaper imbroglio tore viciously at Australian cricket’s cultural seams, sparking a wave of invective, reflection and – it would appear – rehabilitation: public and private, institutional and individual.

Although most Australians were asleep when it happened, in the pantheon of cricket crises the sandpaper affair landed in the “I remember where I was when I found out” realm. Given the sheer onslaught of content this century, such a phenomenon is worth pointing out. For this author, it was an antenatal class in north London, ducking to the bathroom four or five times to read dispatches while our midwife delivered subtly editorialised views on the dangers of NHS doctors “intervening” in the birth.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/feb/26/ball-tampering-reverberations-endure-as-australia-return-to-scene-of-the