Newlands ball tampering scandal: 2-year anniversary of Australian cricket's darkest day

March 24, 2020 marks two-year anniversary of infamous Newlands ball tampering scandal which had threatened to changed trajectory of Australian cricket forever. n national side's captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and opening batsman Cameron Bancroft were embroiled in one of biggest scandals to have ever hit Australian cricket. Both Smith and Warner earned 12-month bans and lost ir leadership roles within team.

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complete story of Newlands ball tampering scandal

Australia were taking on South Africa in Cape Town for third Test of 2018 four-match Test series which was levelled at 1-1. series had already been a tense one with several altercations betweent two teams. David Warner had already been involved in a heated pavilion incident with Proteas wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock. According to recent Australian media reports, during Newlands Test, Warner was subjected to several sledges which attacked his wife. That infuriated Warner so much that he wanted to win match matter what and came up with plan to have team newcomer Cameron Bancroft tamper with ball. Captain Steve Smith was aware of happenings but did t pay too much attention to it.

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Newlands Ball Tampering scandal: controversial day

next day, Bancroft carried a sandpaper in his trousers and tampered ball when he got chance. As luck would have it, multiple camera angles caught Bancroft tampering ball and whole plan was n revealed. As a consequence of Newlands ball tampering scandal, Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were immediately banned and head coach Darren Lehmann resigned from his post after series was over.

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aftermath of Newlands ball tampering scandal

Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for 12 months while Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months. After serving his ban, Bancroft made a comeback into Australian team but could t solidify his place his place in playing XI. Warner and Smith made comebacks and performed well in IPL 2019. Later on, y played decent kcks at 2019 World Cup.

Smith, n went on to win Australia ir second consecutive Ashes series with 774 runs. David Warner did t impress in Ashes but some sublime Test innings later in year ended up earning him prestigious Allan Border medal at 2020 Australian Cricketer Awards. Justin Langer succeeded Darren Lehmann as Australia's head coach, who created a new team led by Tim Paine in red-ball department and Aaron Finch in white-ball department.

Pat Cummins is new Test vice-captain. Steve Smith will be eligible to lead Australia again by end of March 2020.  entire journey of Australia's redemption has been captured in ' Test' docuseries on Amazon Prime Video, which released earlier this month. Smith and Warner are likely to captain Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively again if IPL 2020 takes place.

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