Can you identify this Cricketer cycling in the streets of Pakistan, who debuted in a match opened by WV Raman & Ajay Jadeja and he was the brain behind the infamous Sandpapergate !!
In January 1994, an inexperienced South African team, on their first tour of Australia after two decades of political isolation, faced almost certain defeat when Australia needed just 116 runs to win the second Test in Sydney. Playing in just his second Test, this lean pacer took six for 43 and bowled South Africa to an improbable five-run victory in a match in which they had been forced to follow on and in which Shane Warne had taken 12 wickets for Australia. Twenty-four years later he was at Newlands as a television commentator, trying to understand how the Australians were able to get reverse swing on a grassy field with a ball which was still relatively new. He tipped off the camera crew that caught Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball with a piece of yellow tape which the batsman then tried to conceal.
The 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal, also known as Sandpapergate, was a cricket cheating scandal surrounding the Australian national cricket team. In March 2018, during the third Test match against South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town, Cameron Bancroft was caught by television cameras trying to rough up one side of the ball with sandpaper to make it swing in flight. Captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were found to be involved and all three received sanctions from Cricket Australia, lighter punishments and got away easily. .
The man - Petrus Stephanus de Villiers (Fanie de Villiers), a frail looking medium pacer play for South Africa. In 18 tests he took 85 wickets and in 83 one dayers he took 95 wickets at a good economy rate.
It took just 30 seconds for reputations of players and a national team to take a nose dive, for careers to be put at risk. In an explosive report from The Sydney Morning Herald, a source has given them an insight into just what went down in the Australian locker room at lunch on the third day of the third test against South Africa. David Warner emerged as the 'chief conspirator' in the ball tampering scandal that rocked world cricket to its core. Cameras captured Cameron Bancroft's illegal attempt to scuff the ball after lunch on day three of the third Test in Cape Town, a ploy that Steve Smith later admitted he and 'the leadership group' had given the green light to.
It was the former South African fast bowler Fanie de Villiers who perhaps brought out this cheating ! – he says he instructed camera operators to look for Australian ball tampering on day three of the third test, having suspected the Australians were using underhanded tactics. De Villiers said he knew something was up given how early they got the ball to reverse swing. De Villiers has been working for a broadcaster in South Africa for the Test series and claimed he knew something untoward could have been going on by how early the tourists were getting the ball to reverse swing. Ultimately his suspicions were proved correct when, after searching for an hour-and-a-half, the cameras spotted Cameron Bancroft rubbing sticky yellow tape on the ball in an attempt to alter its condition.
When one think of Indian openers in One dayers of recent decades – the immediate thinking is of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan .. .. .. .. – at Capetown on Dec 7 1992, it was Woorkeri Venkat Raman and Ajay Jadeja - South Africa won by 6 wickets (with 3 balls remaining) – Fanie de Villiers debuted in that match
Regards – S Sampathkumar
28.3.2025
