Following the Sandpaper-gate affair that resulted in the removal of Steve Smith and David Warner as captain and vice-captain in 2018, former Australia captain Tim Paine has accused South Africa of ball tampering in the Test match.
In his shocking accusations, Paine claimed that the South African match broadcasters had concealed this Proteas deed.
The Australian Associate Press reported that Paine made the shocking revelations in his autobiography The Paid Price, making him the first player to open out about the 2018 Cape Town Test in a tell-all book.
Paine denied that the decision to have Cameron Bancroft use sandpaper on the ball during the third Test of the series against South Africa at Cape Town was made at a team meeting. Paine was forced to resign in 2021 after a sexting incident with a former Cricket Tasmania colleague that occurred in 2017.
He claims that when Bancroft was shown hiding the sandpaper in his pants during a replay, he was astounded and his heart plummeted.
What the f**k, I was thinking, Paine confessed. "All of us had a sense of dread."
However, he acknowledged that using sandpaper was "next level" and "shameful," with more conventional tampering methods typically involving methods like throwing the ball to the ground, according to the report.
He asserts that the South African team allegedly tore the ball's seam apart during the ensuing Test, which made him upset.
In the fourth Test of that series, "I saw it happen," wrote Paine. "Consider that. Following all that occurred in Cape Town, all the news coverage, all the restrictions, and moving forward.
"In the following Test, I was watching from the bowlers' end when a picture of a South African player at mid-off taking a massive swing at the ball appeared on the television.
"The television director, who had actively assisted in catching Cam, quickly removed the image from the screen.
"We complained to the umpires, which may seem a little poor, but we had been thoroughly humiliated and believed they had been planning this since the first Test.
"But the video was misplaced. like it would."
He asserted that crowd harassment of the players' families caused Australian players to be constantly provoked during the series.
The article stated that the wicketkeeper also asserted that Warner had every right to be unhappy because he believed Quinton de Kock had made a remark about his wife Candice prior to the notorious stairs altercation in Kingsmead.
"I was the one holding them apart and I know how it unfolded," Paine said.
He also claimed that Cricket Australia used the opportunity to punish David Warner for his role in the previous year's pay talks.