The 2018 ball-tampering scandal, dubbed "Sandpapergate," overshadowed South Africa's stunning 3-1 Test series victory over Australia, with the fallout causing significant national angst in Australia and prompting severe punishments for the players involved.
The scandal erupted during the third Test at Newlands in Cape Town when Australia's Cameron Bancroft was questioned by umpires about ball tampering. The hosts' achievement faded into irrelevance as the scale of Australia's reaction dominated headlines worldwide.
Australian Fallout and Punishments
Australia's prime minister weighed in on the matter. Steve Smith and David Warner were stripped of the captaincy and vice-captaincy respectively and banned for a year. Cameron Bancroft, who was 25 at the time, received a nine-month ban. Coach Darren Lehmann resigned. Smith was marched through Johannesburg airport surrounded by police and cameras before breaking down in tears at a press conference in Sydney, with his father standing behind him.
To Australians, this was a national disgrace, a sign of how far the team had fallen. To many South Africans, the response was surreal.
South African Perspectives
Faf du Plessis, South Africa's captain in 2018, said: "We thought it would be a big news story and then blow over." Du Plessis was uniquely qualified to comment, having been twice found guilty of ball tampering himself—first against Pakistan in 2013 for rubbing the ball on his zipper, and then in 2016 in Australia during the "mintgate" furore. His response to the 2018 scandal was not outrage but recognition. "It's a pressure cooker, isn't it?" he said. "You're under so much pressure that eventually the lid blows off."
South Africa's Vernon Philander, who played all four Tests, still believes the punishment handed to Smith and Warner was "a little bit outrageous." He was even more perplexed by the political intervention. "For a prime minister to get involved … I don't think there was a need for that," he said.
A Series Overshadowed
While Australia were undergoing a national crisis, the hosts were achieving something they had waited 48 years for. They had beaten Australia away three times in succession but, since readmission, never at home. Kagiso Rabada took 23 wickets, Aiden Markram scored two centuries, AB de Villiers produced a masterpiece in Gqeberha, and Du Plessis made a hundred in Johannesburg with a broken finger before Philander took six wickets as Australia were crushed by 492 runs.
It should have been remembered as one of the crowning achievements in South African cricket. Instead, eight years later, the series has a one-word shorthand: "Sandpapergate."
Australia return to South Africa this week for their first Test series in the country since. Pat Cummins now leads a team that presents a markedly different face to the one that arrived in 2018. South Africa have changed too, having triumphed in the World Test Championship final last year. But the demons and difficult conversations from 2018 still loom large. Australia looked at that act of sporting dishonesty and saw something much larger reflected back. South Africa looked at the same piece of sandpaper and watched one of their greatest victories disappear behind it.
