David Saker calls for Australia’s Newlands ball-tampering report to be made public

June 3, 2021 c_admin Cricket News Comments Off on David Saker calls for Australia’s Newlands ball-tampering report to be made public

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Former Australia bowling coach says he ‘had no idea there was any sandpaper involved’ and that he said everything to officials

David Saker has called for Cricket Australia (CA) to make the report into the Newlands ball-tampering scandal public to try and put the issue to bed after it recently resurfaced following Cameron Bancroft’s comments.

Saker, who was an assistant coach with Australia at the time, had previously responded to Bancroft’s views last month by saying blame for the incident could be laid at the door of a lot of people although only Bancroft, David Warner and Steven Smith were sanctioned following the report compiled by CA’s then head of integrity, Iain Roy.

“I can’t see any point why it wouldn’t be released, but that’s up to Cricket Australia and the way they want to handle that,” Saker told reporters on the day he was appointed as the new Melbourne Renegades men’s coach. “These questions keep coming up, if it’s released then maybe the questions might stop but I don’t think they will.”

Australia’s attack from that game in Cape Town – Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon – put out a strong joint statement following Bancroft’s comments that it was “probably self-explanatory” that there was awareness from the bowlers around what was happening.

CA reiterated that anyone with new information should come forward. They contacted Bancroft and were satisfied he had nothing to add.

“The investigation was a thorough one. As far as we are concerned, the investigation is closed and we move forward,” Nick Hockley, the CA chief executive, said last month.

Saker, who has since worked with Sri Lanka, has made peace with the situation and insisted everything that he needed to say was put in the report compiled in the aftermath.

“I’ve said everything about it I have seen,” he said. “I had no idea there was any sandpaper involved. As far as we knew, we were using normal tactics to get the ball reverse swinging, So, if other people have got other things that they saw or did, they can come out and say it at a later stage but I’ve said everything that I’ve seen.

“I’m comfortable with where I’m at about it all. I think it’s always going to be brought up. I brought it up the other day…I was involved in the team obviously. So it’s going to get kept being brought out, but I’m not sure it’s going to get anywhere.

“We’ve all gone in and done our bit so I can’t see it going any further, but the questions will keep coming. There’s no doubt about that, but that’s just a part of life, you got to deal with that but it’s never going to go away, that’s for sure.”