- Fanie de Villiers has revealed he told cameramen to look out for ball tampering
- The former South Africa captain claimed he suspected underhanded tactics
- He knew the Australians were doing something as the ball was reverse swinging
- De Villiers said: ‘We actually said to our cameramen, “go out [and] have a look, boys. They’re using something”. They searched around for an hour and a half’
- Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft admitted trying to alter the ball’s condition
Former South African captain Fanie de Villiers has revealed he helped snare the cheating Australians after instructing camera operators to look out for ball tampering, having suspected underhanded tactics.
De Villiers has been working for a broadcaster in South Africa for the Test series and claimed he knew something fraudulent could have been going on given how early the Tourists were getting the ball to reverse swing.
Ultimately his suspicions were proved correct when after searching for an hour and a half the cameras spotted Cameron Bancroft rubbing sticky yellow tape on the ball in an attempt to alter its condition.
Ex-South African captain Fanie de Villiers has revealed he helped snare the cheating Australians by instructing camera operators to look out for signs of ball tampering
De Villiers, who has been working for a broadcaster in South Africa for the Test series, claimed he knew something was up given how early they got the ball to reverse swing
Steve Smith (R) and Cameron Bancroft (L) admitted to deliberately tampering with the ball
‘I said earlier on, that if they could get reverse swing in the 26th, 27th, 28th over then they are doing something different from what everyone else does,’ de Villiers told RSN Radio on Monday.
‘We actually said to our cameramen, “go out [and] have a look, boys. They’re using something”.
‘They searched for an hour and a half until they saw something and then they started following Bancroft and they actually caught him out at the end.
Damning graphic shows how the ball reversed in Cape Town while Bancroft tampered with the ball but stopped when his actions were exposed
Cameras spotted Bancroft rubbing yellow tape on the ball before hiding it down his trousers
The umpires went over to confront Bancroft after the footage was shown on the big screen
‘It’s impossible for the ball to get altered like that on cricket wickets where we knew there was grass on, not a Pakistani wicket where there’s cracks every centimetre.
‘We’re talking about a grass-covered wicket where you have to do something else to alter the shape, to alter the roughness of the ball on the one side. You have to get the one side wetter, heavier than the other side.’
A damning graphic showed how the ball reversed in Cape Town while Bancroft tampered with the ball but stopped when his actions were exposed.
Steve Smith was given a one-match ban, fined 100 per cent of his match fee and has been temporarily stood down as captain during this series for his involvement.
While Bancroft was fined 75 per cent of his fee and given three demerit points.
Smith got a one-game ban, fined all of his match fee and temporarily stood down as captain
While Bancroft was fined 75 per cent of his match fee and slapped with three demerit points
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