Desperately wanted to be liked by Australian team, says Cameron Bancroft as he drops bombshell on 2018 sandpaper gate

The 2018 Cape Town Test is one of the darkest chapters in Australian cricket's history when the opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was seen rubbing sandpaper to the ball, caught by television cameras. After which, the then skipper Steve Smith, the vice-captain David Warner and Bancroft himself accepted to have been involved in ball-tampering and suggested that it was discussed in the leadership group to have the ball swing and the trio was suspended by Cricket Australia (CA) for one-year bans for captain and his deputy while a 9-month ban for Bancroft.

The players served their bans, apologised and the world was back to normal. However, the 28-year old's new revelations could lead to the re-opening of the old wounds as Bancroft has suggested that there was awareness about the same 'elsewhere' in the team as well.

While the punishment was limited to the three players, the then coach Darren Lehmann, high performance chief Pat Howard, and CA board director Mark Taylor all resigned in the following months.

Bancroft, who is in England preparing for another stint with county side Durham, spoke to The Guardian about the sandpaper-gate and the journey since.

Bancroft said that he lost control of his values and went into desperation mode wanting to be liked by the Australian team but when pressured by the publication asking if the bowlers knew, the opener said that it's 'pretty self-explanatory'.

Bancroft initially mentioned that he wanted to take responsibility of his own actions but hinted at the involvement of others as well.

“Yeah, look, all I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part. Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory. I guess one thing I learnt through the journey and being responsible is that’s where the buck stops. Had I had better awareness I would have made a much better decision,” he had initially answered.

Cameron Bancroft on the ball-tampering scandal: ‘I lost control of my values' | Donald McRae https://t.co/SqTneCplDq

— The Guardian (@guardian) May 14, 2021

Who else knew

MORE >>> https://t.co/adG64xvI6b pic.twitter.com/s3upBriIgV

— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) May 15, 2021

When Steve Smith had mentioned the involvement of the 'leadership group', it surely implicated some other members of the team as well but no names were dropped and the bowlers Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon were reportedly not happy with them being mentioned during the saga.

If Cricket Australia re-opens the case, the buck would be hard to stop.