“A complete mess”
Nasser Hussain did not need long to find the word. Mess.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, the former England captain gave his view of the storm Usman Khawaja has stirred up with his autobiography, Sabr. Khawaja, who played in the 2018 Cape Town Test, claims the entire Australian side knew about the sandpaper plan, not just the three men banned: Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner. He also says Cricket Australia never questioned him at the time, despite him sitting next to Bancroft in the dressing room.
Hussain accepted that bowlers have always looked for ways to get a ball moving, from mints and sweets to dirt in the pocket. What he couldn’t get past was the sandpaper itself. How did nobody in a team meeting say this was wrong? How did they think they would get away with it with cameras everywhere? Then came the lying afterwards, and an investigation that did not speak to every player.
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Atherton: the worst of both worlds
Michael Atherton went after the governing body. He argued Cricket Australia handed out sanctions he called hard to justify, let three players carry the blame and left questions open. That, in his view, guaranteed the story would come back. It has.
Atherton does not think a new investigation is needed. But he believes the part stinging Australian supporters most is the idea that players did not have each other’s backs, and he expects that to run for a while. He described the sandpaper as the straw that broke the camel’s back for a side that had become, in his words, slightly out of control.
A circus in Perth
Atherton is already in Australia and expects Thursday’s press conference to be a circus. Mitchell Marsh, the only member of the white-ball squad who played at Newlands in 2018, fronts up before Friday’s first ODI against England in Perth.
The bigger worry for Australia is the calendar. Marnus Labuschagne has been dropped, a Test tour of India and an away Ashes lie ahead, and Atherton already sees cracks in a team he doubts is robust enough for what is coming.
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