NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport

Cricket: Former Australian cricketers slam Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith tell-all interviews

By Andrew McMurtry for news.com.au
news.com.au·
26 Dec, 2018 06:09 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Cameron Bancroft has broken his silence on the ball-tampering scandal that saw him suspended. Photo / Getty Images

Cameron Bancroft has broken his silence on the ball-tampering scandal that saw him suspended. Photo / Getty Images

Cricket legends have unloaded on Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith's tell-all interviews with a scathing assessment of the reasons behind them.

With Bancroft's domestic and international ban set to end on Saturday, the former test opener had an exclusive interview with Fox Cricket commentator Adam Gilchrist.

In a stunning revelation, Bancroft revealed it was David Warner who had suggested using the sandpaper.

"Dave (Warner) suggested to me to carry the action out on the ball given the situation we were in the game and I didn't know any better," Bancroft said.

"I didn't know any better because I just wanted to fit in and feel valued, really — as simple as that.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The decision was based around my values, what I valued at the time and I valued fitting in … you hope that fitting in earns you respect and with that, I guess, there came a pretty big cost for the mistake."

He said he had been in a tough spot and he would have been in the same situation whether or not he had chosen to tamper with the ball.

"I would have gone to bed and I would have felt like I had let everybody down. I would have felt like I had let the team down. I would have left like I had hurt our chances to win the game of cricket," Bancroft said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Meanwhile, Smith — also speaking with Gilchrist by on Cricket 360 — revealed where the unquenchable thirst for victory came from that sparked the controversy — a test against South Africa in Hobart in 2016.

"I remember James Sutherland and Pat Howard coming into the rooms there and saying 'we don't pay you to play, we pay you to win'," Smith said.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting told Cricket.com.au he was "quite shocked" by the revelations, but understood why it aired.

"You've probably got a big percentage of the population watching the cricket today and they'll be reading about it tomorrow. I can understand how that could happen," Ponting said.

Discover more

Black Caps

Stunning Southee leads superb NZ fightback

26 Dec 05:30 AM
Black Caps

The cruel stat owned by Black Caps star

26 Dec 07:55 AM
Black Caps

BJ Watling: The Black Caps' Rescue Worker

26 Dec 06:40 AM
Sport|cricket

Why Australian cricketer lied about ball-tampering

26 Dec 10:27 PM

"I'm not sure how happy the players would be about it or Cricket Australia, because it's a pretty special moment in Australian cricket on a day like today. So, we'll see what the reaction is.

"I've seen a couple of headlines (since the interviews), which I've been shocked at, I must admit. Some of the things that have been said have been quite shocking to me."

Despite the re-airing of the issue, Ponting backs Smith to return to a leadership position.

He also said he understands why Bancroft and Smith wanted to talk about the issue again.

"I think the guys that are not banned have had long enough to move on from that sort of stuff," Ponting said.

"The guys that were banned have had to live it on a daily basis, but the other guys not quite as much.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I'm pretty sure that Painey and some of the other guys, they have to leave that behind and move on and worry about what's happening in the middle of the MCG. Because right now, the series is at absolute fever pitch … so the less distractions the better."

Former Australian batsman Dean Jones was not so understanding, taking to Twitter to blast the pair for their interviews.

My thoughts on the Steve Smith and Cam Bancroft interview.
1. Just dumb to do the interviews. What were they thinking?
2. Just be quiet, do your time. Practice hard and quietly get your spot back.
3. If they get a 100, don’t carry on. Just raise your hand and move on.

— Dean Jones AM (@ProfDeano) December 26, 2018

On the Fox Cricket coverage, Kerry O'Keeffe said Bancroft's admission he was ordered to ball tamper spoke volumes.

"The one that hit home to me most was that he said he'd have felt just as bad if he'd said 'no' to tampering with the ball," he said.

"Does that say more about him or more about the atmosphere that was inside that team culture at the time. I think it probably says more about [option] B, that he'd have felt bad if he'd said 'no' to cheating.

"That atmosphere should never have been able to develop, but it obviously had."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The only player to remain quiet so far is David Warner and on Cricket 360, Gerard Whateley and Robert Craddock speculated about the response.

Craddock admitted Warner had the power to "detonate everything" and sees no other way for him back into the national set up.

The pair said the interviews placed Warner in an unenviable position.

"For me it leaves him classically wedged," Whateley said.

"I don't see how he can remain silent about it, I don't see how he can make his return to cricket without answering the pertinent questions.

"He either admits that version of events is right and is collared for the dastardly act of concocting the cheating action all on his own or he says 'that's not quite the way that it unfolded', in which case you've got a burning house again."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Fellow Fox Cricket commentator and Aussie batting great Mark Waugh said it seemed to him that Bancroft was making a "little bit of an excuse".

"The one thing I couldn't quite understand was he said he didn't really know right from wrong," Waugh said.

"That seems to me to be a little bit of an excuse, given that he's played first-class cricket for a long time, and Test cricket.

"But the fact that he thought he had to do it to fit into the team, it's a bit of a sad reflection on what was going on."
Craddock said Warner's return is not a certainty with plenty of questions still to answer.

"He is trapped between the past and the present," Craddock added.

"If he tells all he knows, it could really detonate everything. If he sits on his hands and says 'oh no, as you found out it was all me, it was all my fault' — can he live with himself?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Here's the interesting thing, Australia will spend four months in England next year with the World Cup and the Ashes. Four days on tour with a fragmented team is a long time — can Warner and these guys who he is struggling with in the team, can they really spend four months together? Given the tension between Warner and his teammates who have just given him up and said it's your fault."

Gilchrist was on Cricket 360 and encouraged Warner to open up.

"There's no doubt David Warner would be feeling so isolated right now," he said.

"I would encourage Dave to come out wherever and just be honest and as open as you need to be to get back to playing cricket."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Cricket

IPL suspended amid India-Pakistan tensions

09 May 09:49 AM
Premium
Rugby

Tight Five: Why the All Blacks' loose forward dilemma is a tough puzzle

09 May 09:21 AM
Premium
Rugby|all blacks

The unlucky six: Stars who missed out on All Blacks jersey

09 May 09:20 AM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

IPL suspended amid India-Pakistan tensions

IPL suspended amid India-Pakistan tensions

09 May 09:49 AM

New schedule details will follow after assessing the situation.

Premium
Tight Five: Why the All Blacks' loose forward dilemma is a tough puzzle

Tight Five: Why the All Blacks' loose forward dilemma is a tough puzzle

09 May 09:21 AM
Premium
The unlucky six: Stars who missed out on All Blacks jersey

The unlucky six: Stars who missed out on All Blacks jersey

09 May 09:20 AM
Deluge prompts postponement of Alexandra Park meeting after one race

Deluge prompts postponement of Alexandra Park meeting after one race

09 May 08:28 AM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP