adminSYDNEY. — Australian cricket chief Kevin Roberts insisted the return of Steve Smith and David Warner will not disrupt the resurgent team as a report yesterday revealed senior players threatened a boycott in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal.
One-year bans slapped on the former captain and his deputy for their part in the scandal dubbed “Sandpaper-gate” expired overnight and the pair are free to play at state and international level again.
Warner was widely seen as the instigator of the plot during the third Test in Cape Town last year to use sandpaper to alter the ball, with rookie opener Cameron Bancroft carrying it out and Smith turning a blind eye.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday that star bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon all intended to pull out of the fourth Test in South Africa if Warner was not removed from the team.
Citing multiple sources, it said “the revelation highlights the extent of the fracture within the dressing-room in the immediate aftermath of one of the most damaging events in Australian cricket history”.
Smith and Warner’s reintegration process has already begun with the pair meeting the one-day team in Dubai this month. Lyon and Cummins were present, but the injured Starc and Hazlewood were not. Asked whether relations had been patched up sufficiently for Warner’s return not to be disruptive, Roberts compared the situation to any other workplace. — AFP
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