CricketFaf Du Plessis defends Steve Smith in his new book over Sandpaper gate scandal
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Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis has made a shocking claim that the Proteas suspected Australia of ball-tampering long before the ‘sandpapergate’ scandal.

News Corp obtained excerpts from the 38-year-old’s autobiography ‘Faf: Through Fire’, which is set to be released to the public on October 28.

In it, du Plessis writes that the South African team began spying on Australian fielders through binoculars in the changeroom, suspecting possible ball tampering.

He claimed that South Africa had suspected ball-tampering on Australia from the first Test of the series, something which News Corp claims is “strongly disputed” by Australian sources.

Du Plessis writes, “During the first Test in Durban, the Australian pace attack completely reversed the ball.”

“Mitchell Starc took nine wickets and, although I regard him as one of the best proponents of reverse-swing bowling that I have ever seen or encountered, those balls were impossible to hit the boundary line in Durban.

He said, ‘He used to come around the wicket with a badly spoiled ball and circle it in front of us.

“Our balls were also overturned, but not as much as theirs.

“We suspected that someone was nurturing the ball too much to reverse so wildly, and we watched the second Test at St George’s through binoculars, so that we could follow the ball more closely when Australia were fielding.

“While we noticed that the ball was often going to David Warner – our changing room must have looked like a birdwatching hideout as we looked carefully through our binoculars.

“There was a clear distinction between how Mitchell Starc reversed the ball in the first Test in Durban and the final Test in Johannesburg. Now we know there was an obvious reason for this.”

Faf du Plessis does not specifically accuse Starc of any foul play and has referred to both his own and previous incidents of ball tampering, including in Australia in late 2016 for swinging the ball. Mint was used to shine the ball.

“In the past, we have also been found guilty of adopting unorthodox methods to get the ball into reverse swing.

“In our team, we thought, ‘No! Ball tampering and reverse swing have always happened. In fact, it was probably more prevalent when camera technology wasn’t as good as it is today.’

Du Plessis actually claimed he doesn’t think Steve Smith, who was banned for 12 months, did “very wrong” while he said he has “tremendous sympathy” for Cameron Bancroft.

David Warner however, who was banned for 12 months and is still banned from any leadership role in the Australian cricket team, did not find any mention from du Plessis.

“Personally, I don’t think Steve Smith did much wrong,” he wrote.

“It is no secret that all cricket teams want the ball to be reversed. Not everyone knows how to accomplish this, especially not inexperienced players. But everyone knows that changing the position of the ball is wrong. We have pushed those limits too.

“Steve Smith and I have never been friends but we always played a tough game against each other, and Steve was ready to publicly defend me in 2016 when ‘Mintgate’ broke up.

“I texted him that evening [in Cape Town]: ‘Message of support. I’ve gone through this myself. It’s a terrifying experience when they attack your character. Hang in there. It’ll fly.’

“He replied, ‘Thanks mate!’ To which I replied, ‘There will be a s*** storm for a while. But stay strong.’

“I have tremendous sympathy for what he [Bancroft] did. That’s what happens in a team when a culture of belonging is limited to performance and when players are made to believe they have to before they are accepted. One needs to prove himself at any cost.”

Australia’s current bowling attack was forced to issue a joint statement last year after Bancroft made Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon also aware of the ball-tampering tactics.

“We didn’t know a foreign substance was introduced onto the field to change the position of the ball until we saw the pictures on the big screen at Newlands,” the four bowlers said in a joint statement last year.