‘Used binoculars to keep..’: Faf du Plesis reveals Proteas suspected Australia of ball tampering in 2018 series

When the infamous 2018 series against Australia took place in South Africa, former captain Faf du Plessis was in leadership. He recently spoke out about the ‘Sandpaper Gate’ scandal that rocked Australian cricket, claiming that the Proteas suspected Australia of ball-tampering well before the incident happened.

Du Plessis claimed in his book titled ‘Faf: Through Fire,’ which will be released on October 28, that the Proteas suspected Australia of ball-tampering from the first Test of the series.

“During the first Test in Durban, the Australian pace attack had got the ball to reverse insanely. Mitchell Starc claimed nine wickets and, although I regard him as one of the best proponents of reverse-swing bowling I have ever seen or faced, those deliveries in Durban were borderline unplayable. He would come in around the wicket with a badly deteriorated ball and get it to hoop past us. Our balls had also reversed but not nearly as much as theirs,” Du Plessis wrote in his book as per Fox Sports.

FAF: Through Fire is more than a book about cricket. It’s the story of a man who just happened to play at cricket’s highest level. ​​​​Join Maverick Sports ed @craigray11 & Former Proteas Captain @faf1307‘s chat about his latest book by registering here: https://t.co/FsKyuVmi5s pic.twitter.com/UGiO0Ji6v7
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Later, broadcaster cameras recorded Cameron Bancroft rubbing the ball with a yellow piece of sandpaper and hiding it in his pants. While Bancroft was suspended for nine months for his acts, the then-captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were also banned from competitive cricket for a year for their roles in the conspiracy.

Du Plessis also claimed that the South Africans used binoculars to monitor the Australian bowlers and the ball.

“We suspected that someone had been nurturing the ball too much to get it to reverse so wildly, and we watched the second Test at St George’s through binoculars, so that we could follow the ball more closely while Australia was fielding. When we noticed that the ball was going to David Warner quite often – our changing room must have looked like a birdwatching hide as we peered intently through our binoculars. There was a visible difference between how Mitchell Starc got the ball to reverse in the first Test in Durban and the final Test in Johannesburg. We now know that there was an obvious reason for that,” he added.

Mitchell Starc took nine wickets as Australia won the first Test by 118 runs, but lost the four-match series 1-3.

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