The prolific batsman was sent home in disgrace, banned for a year and sacked as captain after conspiring to alter the ball using sandpaper during the third Test in Cape Town eight years ago. David Warner, considered the ringleader, was suspended for 12 months and stripped of all leadership roles while Cameron Bancroft was slapped with a nine-month ban.
Steve Smith says he is still traumatised by the infamous “Sandpapergate” ball-tampering scandal in 2018, but the former Australia skipper is undaunted about returning to South Africa for his first Test series since.
“I’m not a big fan of cameras … That and going through the airport in Johannesburg getting absolutely mobbed, and then flying back and doing that press conference. “The mental state I was in was not great. That’s somewhere I’d like not to get to again, but I certainly learned from that and have been able to move forward with my life. “It’s something I’m kind of used to.
Smith, preparing for the first Test in Durban on October 9 before the series moves to Gqeberha and Cape Town, said he still suffers flashbacks to a traumatic period of his life. “The 24-48 hours of being told by James Sutherland (then-Cricket Australia chief executive) that I was getting banned for a year.
I get anxious around cameras to be honest,” he told News Corp. in an interview published Thursday. “It was certainly a difficult period, particularly the initial period a few days after,” he said. I’ve copped a lot at times away from home at different venues across my career and it’s something that I take in my own stride,” he said.
