• Tim Paine claims South Africa tampered with the ball.
• Match broadcaster covered it up just days after the sandpaper-gate controversy in 2018.
• The former Australian captain made the cheating allegation in his freshly released book.

Tim Paine accused South Africa of ball-tampering and claimed the match broadcaster covered it up just days after the sandpaper-gate controversy in 2018 rocked Australian cricket,

The former Australian captain made the cheating allegation in his freshly released book, which was heavily covered by Australian media on Tuesday.

In the Test that came after the now-famous one in Cape Town, where TV cameras caught Australia’s Cameron Bancroft hiding sandpaper in his pants after appearing to use it on the ball, he claimed that South Africa picked at the seam.

The host broadcaster “quickly removed the shot off the screen” in the South African case, according to Paine, and the footage “went lost.”

He remarked, “I saw it happen in the fourth Test of that series,” alluding to the Proteas’ 492-run victory in Johannesburg.

“Consider that. Following all that occurred in Cape Town, all the news coverage, all the restrictions, and moving forward.

“A shot of a South African player at mid-off having a tremendous whack at the ball appeared on the screen while I was watching the next Test match from the bowlers’ end.

The TV director, who had actively contributed to Cam (Bancroft) being exposed, quickly removed the shot off the screen.

“We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a little poor, but we had been destroyed and believed they were up to it ever from the first Test,” said the team. But the video was misplaced. Like it would.”

The Bancroft affair rocked Australian cricket, and the batsman was expelled along with the captain at the time, Steve Smith, and Warner’s stand-in, David Warner.

Bancroft received a nine-month sentence, while Warner and Smith received one-year suspensions. As the tour’s wicketkeeper, Paine was later named the Test team’s captain.

He claimed in the book that cricket ball-tampering was widespread, but he later acknowledged that using sandpaper was “next level” and “shameful.”

However, he refuted any claims that a team meeting was held to prepare what Bancroft did, adding that his heart dropped when he watched the replays of what transpired.

He said that he regretted not providing Smith, Warner, and Bancroft with more support throughout the repercussions from the rest of the team, saying that “a sense of dread came over us all.”

If we had owned it as a team, would it have worked out better for those three players? It would have, in my opinion,” he replied.

When sexual text messages he sent to a female colleague in 2017 were going to be made public, Paine resigned from his position as Test captain last November, just before the Ashes series against England.

As the scandal took its toll, he withdrew from cricket and didn’t visit Tasmania again until this month. He attacked Cricket Australia in the book, saying they “hung him out to dry.”

According to Paine, “I thought they were motivated by the need to preserve their reputation.”

I was ready to face criticism for what I did, but in my eyes, Cricket Australia had abandoned me and given the impression that they believed I had harassed someone sexually.

Australia’s cricket officials looked into the sexting claims in 2018 but found no evidence that he had broken any rule of conduct.

Richard Freudenstein, who was elected to the board in 2019, said it was a mistake not to fire Paine when the news first broke last year. Freudenstein was Cricket Australia’s chair at the time.

The truth, according to Paine, is that they were content to support me and acknowledge that I hadn’t violated their code of behavior as long as it remained a secret.

I would still be captain if the story hadn’t been published, and I would still be an Australian player if Cricket Australia had handled the situation as they had promised.

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