Faf du Plessis stated that Cameron Bancroft and Australian teammates faced excessive public and media backlash over the Sandpaper Gate scandal
The 2018 Cape Town ball-tampering incident led to CA imposing 12-month bans on Steve Smith and David Warner
Du Plessis noted that external political pressure and commentary from former players escalated the crisis
Sandpaper Gate remains one of the darkest chapters in Australian cricket history. Eight years after the 2018 Cape Town Test against South Africa, Faf du Plessis has revisited the scandal and said he felt sorry for Cameron Bancroft.
Cameras caught Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball with sandpaper. The global outcry over the footage plunged Australian cricket into turmoil, ultimately costing three players their reputations and captaincy roles.
Speaking on the "Beyond the Boundary" podcast with former South Africa pacer Vernon Philander, du Plessis told: “Bancroft, and honestly, my first instincts with him were, I felt sorry for the guy. When I saw him, first of all, he did that, and I was like, ‘Shame.’ He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know how to get the ball to reverse swing, because taking a piece of sandpaper out of your pocket with cameras, it's not the most clever thing to do.”
Team Fallout Grows
Then Australia captain Steve Smith admitted to the ball-tampering allegations after the Cape Town Test. David Warner was later identified as the senior player who played a central role in the plan, while Bancroft carried out the act on the field.
Strict penalties followed swiftly. Cricket Australia barred Smith and Warner from competitive cricket for a year, while Bancroft sat out nine months. Both senior players also lost their leadership roles.
The long-term impact stayed. Smith was later reinstated as vice-captain years later, but Warner never got the chance to lead Australia in his professional career.
Faf Criticises Handling
Du Plessis pointed to the handling.
Recalling the immediate aftermath, the former South Africa captain told, “Then it was that whole incident. I mean, we were sitting after the day's play. And we were like, the team is taking like an hour before the press conference has to start. So we're like, why are they taking so long? What are they doing? And then they issued that statement. And that statement was just like putting blitz under a fire and just going there. And they were saying, no one knows about it. The captain had no idea. The coach had no idea. And everyone was just like, well, hang on, what's going on here? Everyone knows what goes on in a dressing room.”
He argued that Cricket Australia turned the matter into a bigger issue than it needed to be. Du Plessis told, “So I think it was more the way that they handled that that caused a lot of noise. And then it went back to Australia, where the Australian Prime Minister got involved. The ex-cricketers were smashing the team about how you can do that? And we were sitting there going, come on, guys. It's not like you guys got a first to do it. You never did it. Like, don't be glasshouse.”
Du Plessis also criticised the role of politics in the fallout. He told, “I think they could have handled that a little bit better. Cricket Australia had other ideas. And they made that thing become a very big thing. Just let the ICC deal with it. I think when you let politics and stuff come into sport, it never ends well. And that's the case with the Prime Minister's politics and everyone putting pressure on them. And they're feeling like they have to act. They have to act to show that they're doing something. I think that becomes a dangerous precedent.”
Alternative Punishment Debate
Du Plessis felt the bans went too far.
He said the three Australians were punished heavily because they were caught, and that the burden should not have fallen only on them. Du Plessis told, “Everyone has done it at some stage in their career. Warner, Smith and Bancroft were the three guys who were actually caught. I felt the right thing to do was to send Steve Smith a message and say, Listen, I know you guys are trying to do the right thing. You're going to go through some crap over the next week.
"I thought it would be like a week or a month. But it ended up being a year. I was just like, I'm sorry you're going through this. You shouldn't take the brunt of this. It's a thing that, unfortunately, should fall on the whole team. But yeah, I felt for Bancroft. I felt sorry for him because he just didn't know how to do it. And Steve Smith for trying to do the right thing to be the captain and say, it's my show.” Faf said.
He then laid out what he believed should have happened instead. Du Plessis told, “I think if they took it on the chin on that night and said, Cameron would have said, I'm sorry, I made it a bad thing. I'm young in international cricket, and I'm sorry. Which he obviously did. But I think he would have gotten a 50 per cent match fee from the ICC. Steve Smith would have played the next Test match. David Warner, they would have played the whole rest of the year. But what ended up happening is they missed a year of cricket.”
