Tim Paine claims that South Africa tampered with the ball

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    In the game that immediately followed the notorious 2018 Newlands Test, a former Australia captain accused the squad of ball-tampering.

    In the game that immediately followed the controversial 2018 Newlands Test, which saw the Australian squad embroiled in the “Sandpaper-gate” affair, former Australia captain Tim Paine accused South Africa of ball-tampering.

    The statements were made by Paine, who left his position as captain late last year and stopped playing cricket for over a year. Paine’s autobiography, The Price Paid, was published on Tuesday.

    After Cameron Bancroft was photographed using sandpaper on the field during the Cape Town Test of the South Africa tour, Australia suspended former captain Steve Smith, David Warner, and Bancroft.

    Paine claimed, though, that he later witnessed South Africa ball-tampering in the follow-up Test in Johannesburg.

    “Consider that. The wicket-keeper writes, “After everything that had occurred in Cape Town, after all the headlines, bans, and carry on.

    In the upcoming Test, I was watching from the bowlers’ end when a picture of a South African player at mid-off taking a massive swing at the ball appeared on the television.

    The TV director, according to Paine, instantly removed the footage from the stadium screen.

    We went to the umpires about it, which may seem a little poor, but we had been destroyed and believed they had been planning it from the first Test, the author wrote. “But the video was misplaced. Like it would.”

    On Tuesday, neither Cricket South Africa nor the South Africa team were able to immediately comment.

    Even though Cricket Australia (CA) penalized the three players, the media has long conjectured about whether or not other squad members were also involved.

    In a previous interview with The Guardian, Bancroft stated that it was “self-explanatory” for Australia’s bowlers to be aware of ball tampering. The bowlers for Australia have denied knowing about the strategy.

    Paine also denied that the plan was widely known in the locker room, but he said that the club should have accepted responsibility rather than putting all the blame on the three players.

    Everyone had some involvement in it. Would the situation have been better for those three guys if we had taken ownership of it as a team? It would have, in my opinion,” he replied.