How Nathan Lyon became collateral damage in Australian sandpaper disgrace

While the eyes of the cricket world glared at the Australian captains and fast bowlers during the infamous sandpaper cheating scandal of 2018, it was spinner Nathan Lyon who was caught in the crossfire.

 In March 2018, during the third Test match against South Africa in Cape Town, Australian cricketer Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera attempting to rough up the cricket ball with sandpaper to alter its condition. 

Following an investigation, it was revealed that Bancroft, along with team captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner, had orchestrated the ball-tampering plan. 

Smith and Warner were each banned from international and domestic cricket for 12 months, while Bancroft received a nine-month suspension. 

The scandal led to widespread backlash, prompting leadership changes in the Australian cricket team and a review of team culture. 

But amongst all of the drama surrounding the scandal, Nathan Lyon’s 300th Test wicket was lost – and so was the ball he bowled to take it. 

The 300th wicket ball that Lyon bowled in the 2018 Test against South Africa was confiscated by the ICC after vision showed Cameron Bancroft with sandpaper

‘(Kagiso) Rabada stumped was my 300th wicket. It was at the Cape Town Test,’ Lyon told News Corp.

‘I haven’t seen that ball since, unfortunately.’

‘Yeah, I think with everything that happened that game, they took it to have a look at it all,’ Lyon said. 

The ball Lyon used to take his milestone wicket was the second new ball of the first innings and was not the ball impacted by Bancroft and the offending sandpaper.

However the ICC confiscated it anyway and kept it for two years before Lyon asked a former Aussie Test champion and ICC match referee David Boon to help him get it back.  

‘I bumped into him on the balcony of the team hotel in the Covid summer of 2020-21 and being an ICC match referee he reached out to them (the ICC) through his work and tried to find it, and apparently it’s gone missing,’ Lyon said. 

‘Don’t know where it is.

‘There’s been no more correspondence. It is what it is.’

Bancroft and Smith face the music after cameras picked up the Aussie batsman dakking sandpaper during the Cape Town Test

Smith, Bancroft and Warner had to rebuild their careers after the Aussie team became an international disgrace

It is a glaring omission from Lyon’s collection of keepsakes from throughout his Test career, which he has on display at his Sydney home. 

‘My wife has done an amazing piece of artwork where she’s put all the milestone balls or achievements on a wall at home which looked pretty special,’ Lyon said.

‘It’s something I’m proud about and it’s a bit of motivation as well when you walk past it on the way out to work every day.

‘… To see the success I’ve been able to have and understand that all the hard work can pay off.

‘I’ve collected from the start. Very much so. I’ve got my first ever Big Bash wicket ball at home, from a very long time ago, to my first five-for on Test debut.

‘It goes back a long way but it’s something I’m proud about and now my girls are starting to get old enough to ask questions about what’s this and what’s that. Although I think they’re more excited about the pink ones rather than the red ones.

‘I’m grateful for that but at the end of the day I guess I can just throw a ball in there and say it’s the 300th and no one will know, will they?

‘(At the moment) it’s just a blank space.’