Australian cricket has been hit by another ball-tampering controversy after former spinner Stuart MacGill made a shocking admission about his playing days. MacGill revealed that he had used sandpaper to change the condition of the ball during his playing career between 1998 and 2008.
The former Test cricketer also explained how he managed to do it without getting caught by the umpires. MacGill's confession came after Usman Khawaja's recent claims in his autobiography regarding Australia's 2018 ball-tampering scandal against South Africa.
Usman Khawaja claimed that the entire Australian team knew about the plan and that Cameron Bancroft was not the only player involved in altering the conditions of the ball in Cape Town. Later, David Warner agreed with his former teammate Khawaja’s claims.
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Stuart MacGill has now surprised everyone by admitting that he had used a small piece of sandpaper during matches in his latest appearance on the FanaticsTV YouTube show featuring former Australian players Steve O'Keefe and Moises Henriques.
His admission gained massive attention because his method was similar to the original plan described by Khawaja in his autobiography. Khawaja claimed that the idea of using sandpaper during Australia's 2018 South Africa tour was known across the team and coaching staff.
The clever Ball-Tampering plan
The former Australian spinner explained that he would cut a small square of sandpaper and attach it to his thumb with tape. After the tea break, he would pick up the ball while entering the field and scratch its surface. He would then remove the sandpaper and throw it away before the first ball of the session was bowled. However, he only used to scratch the ball.
MacGill shared that the umpires would leave the ball near the boundary before the players returned to the field. This gave him an opportunity to damage its surface without coming into anyone’s eye. He did not see his actions as part of any organized cheating plan at that time.
Stuart MacGill said during the discussion on FanaticsTV, “I’d cut a small piece of sandpaper and tape it to my thumb. But nobody even knew that I’d done it, apart from all the scratches on the ball. It was not a part of a massive ‘global cheating scam’; I was just really curious to see what would happen and if it would work. And oh, it works (laughs).”
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Stuart MacGill makes another shocking Ball-Tampering admission
MacGill further revealed that ball tampering was not limited to the sandpaper trick. He recalled another incident when he had sewn a piece of sandpaper into his trousers. He also spoke about one of his teams putting the match ball inside a freezer to see how it would affect the game.
The former Australian spinner suggested that players often looked for ways to gain an advantage, and such practices had become common during his playing days.
MacGill signed off by saying, “It probably has been (ball tampering going on since the early days of Test cricket) because it’s just getting a competitive advantage, right? And because we know that everybody’s doing it, it doesn’t feel so bad. Like if I’m playing against South Africa, I know that they’ve done everything that I’ve done; I don’t feel bad about it.”
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