When Australia takes the field against Proteas in Kingsmead on October 9, it will be the first time their touring squad steps onto South African soil since the tense 2017–2018 tour, which ended with three players sent home in disgrace.
Eight years after the Sandpapergate incident, only six members of the squad that participated in the darkest period of Australian cricket history will return for the upcoming series.
The Proteas team won that series 3–1: Australia won the first match in Durban by 118 runs before the hosts responded at St George's Park, then in Cape Town at Newlands, and finally secured a rout in Johannesburg.
How the Sandpapergate scandal occurred
During the third match, against the backdrop of the picturesque Table Mountain, the series and a significant part of Australian cricket's reputation collapsed. Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera handling the ball with sandpaper on the third day; captain Steve Smith admitted to knowing about the plan, and vice-captain David Warner was implicated in devising the scheme.
Smith and Warner received 12-month bans, Bancroft nine, and coach Darren Lehmann resigned within days. Weakened and shaken, Australia lost the fourth match at Wanderers by 492 runs.
Five of the players who started that tour are in the squad returning in October: Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, and Mitchell Starc. The sixth player, Matthew Renshaw, was not initially selected—he was brought in from his performance in the Dukes League in England to open the batting in that final Wanderers match, throwing him into the heart of a crisis he was not involved in.
Steve Smith carries the greatest historical burden
Steve Smith bears the heaviest historical weight among these six players. He was the captain of Australia when the plan was devised in Cape Town, and his admission to officials changed the course of history.
Smith's post-match press conference at the Newlands Media Centre remains one of the best sights, witnessed by the old stadium. The tears he shed upon returning to Australia after being sent home demonstrated a broken man.
However, now 37-year-old Smith has served his ban, returned to the Australian team in 2019, and since then has become one of the best batsmen in this format. He had returned to South Africa with Australian baseball teams, but this test series will be a full circle moment for the former Australian captain.
Pat Cummins returns as captain
Pat Cummins participated in that 2018 tour as a young fast bowler, not yet at the level of the leader he became. He returns as captain of Australia, leading the team to the country where both his career and the culture of Australian cricket were damaged.
He will strive desperately for redemption so that the new generation of Australian players can finally leave Sandpapergate behind.
Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc
Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc were part of the same attacking unit that participated in the 2018 tour, and both remain first-choice players eight years later. This pair distanced themselves from the ball-tampering scandal, with Starc admitting: 'It was such a tense time in our lives. There was tension in relationships both as individuals and as a team.'
Nathan Lyon and the incident
Nathan Lyon, a constant element of Australian Test cricket for over a decade, was actually the catalyst for much of the drama that unfolded after spinners dropped the ball on AB de Villiers while the Proteas batsman lay on the ground after getting out.
Lyon was fined 15% of his match fee for this incident, but it triggered a chain of events that ultimately led to David Warner attempting to attack Quinton de Kock in the dressing room stairs at Kingsmead.
Nevertheless, 38-year-old Lyon remains Australia's leading spinner in red-ball format and intends to impress again during the upcoming series.
Matthew Renshaw's story
Matthew Renshaw's story is the most unusual. He was not part of the squad when the scandal broke—he was called up later, essentially to clean up the mess, and returned to Test cricket in the middle of the fourth match.
He will be grateful to be entering a much calmer environment after eight years.
Australia's 2018 bowling attack, consisting of Josh Hazlewood (L), Nathan Lyon (2/L), Mitchell Starc (2/R), and Pat Cummins (R), will all return to South Africa for the upcoming Test series against Proteas.
The full Australian squad includes Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, and Mitchell Starc.
