Bancroft 'keen to move on' as ball tampering returns to the headlines

Khawaja has reignited the sandpaper scandal with explosive claims in his autobiography Sabr that will be published on Tuesday. Among those several centre on Bancroft, who was banned from playing international and domestic cricket for nine months for his role in the incident. Only Bancroft, Steven Smith and David Warner were sanctioned following a swift Cricket Australia investigation.

In extracts published by News Corp, Khawaja reveals how the ball would be collected near the boundary where the umpires left it at the start of a session.

"We all knew that the umpire would drop the ball on the boundary as we went out onto the field," Khawaja wrote. "Straightaway, Bull [Warner] said, 'Well, I can't do it - they're all over me.' I was never going to do it, nor did I think anyone else would. So I just laughed. Then, Cameron Bancroft, who was only six games into his Test career and maybe wanting to fit in, said, 'I'll do it.

"Because all teams were messing around with the ball - in Shield cricket and world cricket too - for Bangers [Bancroft], it wasn't even that big a deal Some of the boys asked, 'You sure?' Bangers replied, 'Yeah, no worries - it'll be easy.'"

Khawaja said he sat next to Bancroft during the third Test in Newlands and saw him speak to a coach before cameras caught the sandpaper vision on day three. Darren Lehmann, the head coach at the time, told ABC Grandstand that he was not the coach in question.

Khawaja has been in touch with Bancroft and has sent him a copy of the chapter on the ball-tampering.

"The situation's a long time ago. I think he's keen to move on and let his bat do the talking," Casson told reporters after the match. "You can't control everything. The way he's handled it, over the past couple of weeks, and over the years gone by, it speaks volumes of the way he's done that.

"He certainly sets the example of how to go about being a professional cricketer."

In 2021, Bancroft gave an interview to the Guardian where he said that it was "self-explanatory" that the bowlers had awareness that the ball was being tampered with in Cape Town. That caused a rebuke from Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon who released a joint statement denying any knowledge of ball tampering.

It is unclear whether Bancroft will address Khawaja's fresh claims. While Smith and Warner continued to build lengthy careers after the scandal, Bancroft has mostly been in the international cricket wilderness. He returned to the Test team briefly after the sandpaper scandal for two matches during the 2019 Ashes tour but has not played international cricket since.

Bancroft remained a prolific run-scorer for WA and averaged 48.37 across their hat-trick of Sheffield Shield titles from 2021-24. He missed out on being Warner's successor in early 2024 when Smith was trialled as an opener.

A wretched run of form to start the 2024-25 domestic season then saw him fall out of the race to open for Australia against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a role that eventually went to Nathan McSweeney.

Bancroft's form has been patchy ever since, but he did score 186 in WA's recent Shield win against South Australia in Adelaide. "I'm definitely not as feverish now about my opportunities to play at that level," Bancroft told ABC Grandstand last week.

"I'm fully accepting of the fact that the likelihood is that I won't play at that level again. If an opportunity came I'd be very grateful and I'd take it, but I'm at peace with playing at the level and the opportunity I had there."