Former English umpire Ian Gould said Australian players were being “out of control” when it came to on-field behaviour even a couple of years before the ball-tampering scandal.
Ian Gould, who retired from international cricket in 2019, recounted his memories from the ball-tampering scandal of 2018 that brought disrepute to Australian cricket. Gould was one of the on-field umpires during the episode in which a few of the Australia players tried to alter the condition of the ball using sandpaper during a Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.
The ball-tampering scandal became one of the darkest in Australian cricket history and the former world champions faced intense scrutiny after the incident. Steve Smith was stripped of captaincy and handed a ban along with David Warner and Cameron Bancroft. It was the young opener who was caught on television cameras trying to slip a piece of sandpaper into his trousers.
Stressing that the repercussions of the ball-tampering scandal has led to the betterment of Australian cricket, Ian Gould, in an interview with The Daily Telegraph while promoting his autobiography ‘Gunner- My Life In Cricket’, shed light on what went on during the fateful day in Cape Town.
“I didn’t realise what the repercussions would be. If you look back on it now, Australia were out of control probably two years, maybe three years, before that, but not in this sense. Maybe – behavioural, chatty, being pretty average people,” Ian Gould said.
“When the director said, ‘He’s put something down the front of his trousers,’ I started giggling, because that didn’t sound quite right. Obviously, what’s come from it is for the betterment of Australian cricket – and cricket generally.”
