For South African cricketers, administrators and supporters, the most surprising aspect of the Sandpaper scandal was not that it happened. After all, the ball had been suspiciously reverse-swinging during the first two Tests of that ill-fated series in 2018. The atmosphere had turned febrile after a stairwell bust-up between Quinton de Kock and David Warner in Durban and after supporters directed misogynistic abuse at Warner and his family in Gqeberha.
Nathan Lyon had promised before the tour to “head-butt the line” of what was acceptable. Darren Lehmann, then Australia’s coach, came from an old school where bullying was sugar-coated with the phrase “mental disintegration”. No, what surprised South Africans most was the scale of the fallout, and how one tiny piece of sandpaper could cause so much national angst.
Australia’s prime minister weighed in. Steve Smith and Warner were stripped of the captaincy and vice-captaincy and banned for a year. Cameron Bancroft, the 25-year-old who many believed was press-ganged into the act, received nine months.
Smith was marched through Johannesburg airport surrounded by police and cameras before breaking down in tears at a press conference in Sydney, his father standing behind him. To Australians, this was a national disgrace. A sign of how far the team, perhaps even the country, had fallen.
To many South Africans, the response was surreal. Du Plessis is uniquely qualified to weigh in. Between making his Test debut in 2012 and the series in 2018, Du Plessis was twice found guilty of ball tampering.
First, against Pakistan in 2013, he was caught rubbing the ball on his zipper. Then, in 2016 in Australia, he was seen applying saliva to the ball while sucking a mint in a brief but inflammatory furore known as “mintgate”. His response to the 2018 scandal was therefore not outrage but recognition.
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