Ex-Australia Coach Reopens Sandpapergate Row, Blasts "Smug' South Africans: "Disgusting"

Justin Langer labelled the South Africans as "smug" over the sandpapergate documentary.© AFP

Former Australia head coach Justin Langer has lashed out at the South African camp over their treatment of Steve Smith and David Warner during the infamous Sandpapergate controversy in 2018. Amid the ongoing second Test between Australia and South Africa in Gqeberha, Langer has reopened the debate surrounding the incident from the Baggy Greens' last tour of the Rainbow Nation. Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft pleaded guilty to tampering with the ball during the third Test in Johannesburg and were handed hefty punishments.

Eight years on, Langer suggested that the trio not only took the blame for their own actions but also for the wider cricketing fraternity, arguing that the ball has not reverse swung in international cricket since the Sandpapergate scandal.

"In my opinion, Steve Smith, David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, not only took one for the Australian cricket team, they also took it for cricketers all around the world. And what I mean by that, the ball has not reversed swung anywhere in the world since that day, including both teams in the first two test matches, the ball hasn't reversed swung," Langer said In The Middle With Watto podcast.

The former labelled the South Africans as "smug" over a documentary released in the aftermath of the incident, which he claimed targeted Smith and Warner in particular.

"And Freddie Flintoff, I wrote this as well, Freddie Flintoff at the time, the prime minister's banging his chest. All these people, I watched a really smug documentary that the South Africans made about a year into my coaching of the Australian team, which I just felt like vomiting the whole time I was watching it, showed the stuff of Steve Smith. I went to England when Steve Smith and David Warner came back for the World Cup and the way they were treated was disgusting, literally as bad adult human behaviour I've ever seen," he added.

Langer also backed former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff's comments from 2018, when he had defended Steve Smith and the Australian team. Flintoff had argued that the criticism was hypocritical and that ball-tampering had been going on in cricket for years. 

"So it made me sick. But Andrew Flintoff at the time summed it all up. While everyone's pouring everything on Australia, Andrew Flintoff said three words, those in glass houses. Ball has not reversed swung since," said Langer.

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