‘Absolute coincidence’: How a cameraman’s chance to zoom exposed Australia’s 2018 Sandpapergate scandal

AB de Villiers of South Africa during Day 3 of the 3rd Test match between South Africa and Australia at PPC Newlands on March 24, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo File) Australia and South Africa begin their three-Test series in Durban on Friday, rekindling a rivalry marred by the Sandpapergate scandal of 2018. The two teams currently occupy the top two spots in the World Test Championship (WTC) rankings, with South Africa entering the series as defending champions after beating Australia in the final of the previous cycle.Their first Test in South Africa since the 2018 tour comes with only one player from that controversial Australian trio of Warner, Bancroft and Smith still in the squad: Steve Smith. The scandal saw Smith, then the captain, along with David Warner and Cameron Bancroft found guilty of ball tampering. Smith lost his captaincy and was banned from both international and domestic cricket for 12 months. Warner received the same ban and was banned from any leadership role in Australian cricket, while Bancroft was banned for nine months. Warner has since retired and Bancroft is no longer part of Australia’s plans.As the teams begin the series opener at Kingsmead, Alvin Naicker, who oversaw the live coverage of the infamous Cape Town Test in March 2018, recalled how a series of fortuitous events led to the revelation of the scandal.

How ‘absolute coincidence’ revealed Sandpapergate

“The way the Australians were caught was an absolute fluke,” Alvin Naicker, who was in charge of SuperSport’s live coverage from Newlands, told BBC Sport.The plan was devised by an Australian “steering group” during the lunch break that Saturday. An alert cameraman focused on Bancroft while others could move elsewhere, while the person operating the stadium’s big screen showed the footage, which was also broadcast to millions of viewers around the world.“Rugby and football coverage is very coordinated. It’s camera one and two, and when the ball is dead you tell the story with close-ups,” Naicker explains, as quoted by the BBC.“Because there’s so much dead time in cricket, there’s a lot more storytelling involved. There’s 80 to 100 people who come together and put the story together in seconds, coordinated by the director.”Naicker said the 2018 series got off to a tense start, but local broadcasters were not specifically looking for signs of cheating by the Australians, despite incidents during the first two Tests.“No one mentioned anything to me,” says Naicker.He recalled how the cameraman happened to focus on Bancroft as the Australian batsman handled the ball.“The ball went to the keeper, then to Bancroft and he flashed,” says Naicker. “First it was on his pants, then another ball, the cameraman accidentally stayed on Bancroft because he wasn’t shining the ball on his pants, he was rubbing the ball on his palm.“When he threw the ball, he put his hand in his pocket. The cameraman — and these are big, big-lens cameras — zoomed into the pocket. The slow-motion operator looked at it, reeled it back and forth, then zoomed in and saw a yellow spot.”Bancroft was caught hiding sandpaper in his pants. Naicker and his team then played the footage on the stadium’s big screen.“When Bancroft looked up at the screen and saw it, he took it off and put it in his pants,” says Naicker. “The cameraman recorded it. It still wasn’t live, we played a replay.”The footage revealed a ball-tampering scandal. As a result, Smith broke down in tears during a live television interview and accepted responsibility. However, he was still handed a 12-month ban from international and domestic cricket and removed as captain.Warner was also banned for 12 months and banned from any leadership role in Australian cricket. Bancroft received a nine-month ban from international and domestic cricket.