WEBVTT
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I'm John Batchelor. This is the Friends of History Debating Society. Cricket.
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I've been learning cricket thanks to Jeremy Zacherson, New South Wales,
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for several years now. I know enough to watch the game.
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I know enough to read about it, although I can't
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use the slang. However, I suddenly realized that there are
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consistencies between baseball and cricket. Not the bat, not the ball,
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not the running up and down, not the fact that
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you can hit it in any direction. or they don't
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wear fancy gloves, just one guy does. Not the fact
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that they appear all in white.
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No, no.
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The similarity is they cheat the same way. It's called sandpaper.
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How does it work, Jeremy?
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Well, John, this harks back to March 2018 when we
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had what was called Sandpaper Gate, where the Australian team
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had an international five-day test there in Newlands, Cape Town,
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South Africa. And during the test, one of our illustrious
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camera crew members on the Australian camera crew was panning
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the camera across the field and happened to zoom in
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on a particular fielder, Cameron Bancroft, who seemed to be
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doing something strange while he was holding the ball. And alas, John,
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as you've alluded to, it turned out that Cameron was
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actually rubbing sandpaper on one side of the cricket ball. Now,
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this actually comes under the rule of ball tampering, so
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it's highly illegal. And it was just pure luck that
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the television camera happened to zoom in at particularly that
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exact moment to catch the ball being sandpapered by Cameron.
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And as you can imagine, it all blew up from there.
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It became a massive scandal.
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Not only was Cameron banned from international and state cricket
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for nine months, Steve Smith and David Warner, the captain
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and vice-captain, all banned for 12 months.
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And then one of our leading coaches, Darren Lehman.
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He was basically forced to step down and leave international cricket,
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at least, because of this incident. But it does actually
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bring out one thing in cricket that's not often discussed,
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is that if you can tamper with the ball significantly,
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as happened here with the sandpaper, you can actually get
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the ball to do some very significant things as it's
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bowled down to the batter, to give yourself an advantage.
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And in this case, what was happening, John, was by
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sanding one side of the ball, which is very similar
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to what, you know, can happen in baseball, you can
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actually get the ball to swing. So effectively like a
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baseball curveball, but what happens in cricket is the ball
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will come down at high speed, bounce, and then as
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it gets more spin off of the bounce, the aerodynamic
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properties actually cause the ball to turn in midair, which
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means if you can time it perfectly, the batter will
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set themselves up to actually hit the ball in one
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spot be completely wrong, and the ball will actually curve
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around the batsman and hit the wicket. So very, very
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effective if you can pull it off, but unfortunately very,
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very illegal in cricket. And honestly, John, we weren't really
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able to go back to South Africa until only this week.
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So this week was the first time the Australian international
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cricket team has been back to South Africa since March
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2018 because partly because because of Sandgate. So, John, it's fascinating.
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It's another part of cricket we don't normally talk about
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because it was a pretty black part of our history.
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And actually at the time, even our prime minister had
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to step in and comment and say we need an
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investigation into the culture of cricket in Australia because it exposed,
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I guess you could say, some form of rule corruption.
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But it's just a fascinating story.
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And you know what?
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We're back to South Africa now. That's the main thing.
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But for a long time, Relations between the Australian and South.
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African teams were very frosty.
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And I don't know if we've still even recovered now.
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In baseball, they keep a piece of sandpaper in the
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pitcher's mitt. And so when it goes into his wind-up,
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he rubs it along the ball. Not every time. Doesn't
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have to. Because you're influencing the batter. If the batter
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thinks the ball's going to act funny, the batter's at
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a disadvantage. That also happens with the famous spitball. If
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you put moisture on one side of the ball, it's
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supposed to affect the way it comes across the plate.
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The story goes, and it's apocryphal, that one day a
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very famous pitcher was accused of throwing a spitball by
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the umpire. It's hard to catch him because the spit
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dries out before the umpire gets to the mound to
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inspect your mitt or inspect the ball. So, The pitcher that,
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I don't remember his name, he was famous though, was
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so upset about being accused of using a spitball, well,
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he probably did, that when he came out for an inning,
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he brought a whole bucket of water, put it on
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the mound, and took the ball and dunked the whole
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thing in the water and let the umpire come over
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and throw him out of the game. That's the story.
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Once upon a time, the spitball. Now, Jeremy, about sandpaper
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and cheating and all of that, I was unaware that
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Australia had indulged itself in that. That sounds more like
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the English team. Has it now not happened again, or
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is this something that each season somebody tries to get
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away with it?
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Well, we haven't seen it again in Australia, but there
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certainly has been other incidents in other teams. And I
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believe in the Indian Premier League, there's been a sandpaper incident.
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There was one, I believe, in the West Indies and
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the Caribbean as well in the past few years. But
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it is very rare now because it's actually very easy
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to detect and umpires know what to look for now
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with the ball. Because as you can imagine, in cricket,
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you play pretty much with one or two match balls.
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So you have the same ball the whole time. And
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that's apart from baseball where it's changed every couple of pitches.
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So.
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what actually happens is if you're sandpapering the ball, it
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becomes quite obvious that there's some tampering going on.
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But, you know, people have still tried it.
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It's a little bit tricky too to actually get away
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with it because often in cricket you don't put the
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ball in the mitt, you don't put the ball in
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the pocket, which means you have to reach into your
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pocket somehow, get the sandpaper onto your hand, rub it
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onto that sandpaper without somebody noticing and getting the sandpaper
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put away as well. So it is very, very hard
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to do and in Sandpaper Gate, partly why it was
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so severe with the penalties was because the team had
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actually practiced how to do this maneuver, how to actually
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get the sandpaper out without being caught, use it against
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the ball and get it away. So there's a lot
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of premeditation. which means, John, it really hasn't happened, I
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don't think, a lot since then. There might be some
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other techniques that haven't been picked up, but sandpaper is
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something that is very much looked out for by the umpires,
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something that's very, very serious if it happens, basically.
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Because of this precedence.
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But I can pretty much say that we don't typically
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get it in any given season.
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But you know what?
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Someone can try it again because it is a very,
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very powerful weapon if you can make it work.
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A young man named Nick Maddison. has performed badly in
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Durban against South Africa. What happened, Jeremy?
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Oh, yes, John.
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As if it wasn't bad enough, this was the first
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game since Sandpaper Gate.
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We're back in South Africa.
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Our opening batsman, Nick Maddison, stepped up to the plate
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with full of promise.
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He's one of our top batters. And then, sure enough,
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he let one ball go by, let.
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Two balls go by, let three, let 33 balls go
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by without being able to hit a single one.
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And then, sure enough, he was out.
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He basically had the ball come down the pitch, hit
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him on the leg in front of the middle stump,
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which is called leg before wicket, LBW, which got him
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out for a fat zero in the score. So honestly, John,
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one of our best batters got out for zero after
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33 balls. He got out for a duck, as we
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like to say in the cricket parlance, but It wasn't
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the opening we were hoping for there in Durban because
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we were expecting to really come out and be really,
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really strong against the South Africans. But what can I say?
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Maybe we're just warming up, but it really wasn't a
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good start.
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So a 33-ball duck means he didn't hit anything.
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He hit absolutely nothing.
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He couldn't get onto the ball whatsoever, which was unusual
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because the South Africans weren't doing anything different with their bowling.
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He was playing very conservatively.
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It looked like he was watching the ball, trying to
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pick it, but he just couldn't get onto it. So
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it went terribly. And basically, I mean, South Africa did
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win that first day test. So we're currently batting again
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and doing okay, but he may have put us far
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behind and we may not be able to recover.
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Let's pick that game up next week when we speak,
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maybe even Wednesday when we speak of the weather. I said,
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What's happening in Durban? Well, they're going to move to
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a different city by Wednesday. It's a five-day test, and
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they're probably going to play all over South Africa. Jeremy Zakas,
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in New South Wales, where the weather's unpredictable, the snakes
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are on the march, and cricket right now is in
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the hands of the people who've sworn off sandpaper. For
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00:08:47.740 --> 00:08:51.279
the moment, a podcast of my conversation with Jeremy Zakas
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in New South Wales about the snakes attacking, about cricket,
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about sandpaper, about Australia in the Southern Hemisphere come springtime.
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Always available at Amazon, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, and other distinguished venues.
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I'm John Batchelor.
1
00:00:00.390 --> 00:00:03.970
I'm John Batchelor. This is the Friends of History Debating Society. Cricket.
2
00:00:04.370 --> 00:00:07.490
I've been learning cricket thanks to Jeremy Zacherson, New South Wales,
3
00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:11.070
for several years now. I know enough to watch the game.
4
00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:13.980
I know enough to read about it, although I can't
5
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:19.219
use the slang. However, I suddenly realized that there are
6
00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:25.079
consistencies between baseball and cricket. Not the bat, not the ball,
7
00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:27.750
not the running up and down, not the fact that
8
00:00:27.769 --> 00:00:30.030
you can hit it in any direction. or they don't
9
00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:33.469
wear fancy gloves, just one guy does. Not the fact
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00:00:33.490 --> 00:00:34.729
that they appear all in white.
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00:00:34.969 --> 00:00:35.329
No, no.
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The similarity is they cheat the same way. It's called sandpaper.
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How does it work, Jeremy?
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Well, John, this harks back to March 2018 when we
15
00:00:47.159 --> 00:00:50.299
had what was called Sandpaper Gate, where the Australian team
16
00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:53.719
had an international five-day test there in Newlands, Cape Town,
17
00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:57.369
South Africa. And during the test, one of our illustrious
18
00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:00.810
camera crew members on the Australian camera crew was panning
19
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:02.859
the camera across the field and happened to zoom in
20
00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:05.939
on a particular fielder, Cameron Bancroft, who seemed to be
21
00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:09.579
doing something strange while he was holding the ball. And alas, John,
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as you've alluded to, it turned out that Cameron was
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00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:16.530
actually rubbing sandpaper on one side of the cricket ball. Now,
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this actually comes under the rule of ball tampering, so
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it's highly illegal. And it was just pure luck that
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the television camera happened to zoom in at particularly that
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exact moment to catch the ball being sandpapered by Cameron.
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And as you can imagine, it all blew up from there.
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It became a massive scandal.
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Not only was Cameron banned from international and state cricket
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for nine months, Steve Smith and David Warner, the captain
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and vice-captain, all banned for 12 months.
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And then one of our leading coaches, Darren Lehman.
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He was basically forced to step down and leave international cricket,
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at least, because of this incident. But it does actually
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bring out one thing in cricket that's not often discussed,
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is that if you can tamper with the ball significantly,
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00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:02.750
as happened here with the sandpaper, you can actually get
39
00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:05.049
the ball to do some very significant things as it's
40
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bowled down to the batter, to give yourself an advantage.
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And in this case, what was happening, John, was by
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00:02:09.870 --> 00:02:12.360
sanding one side of the ball, which is very similar
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00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.139
to what, you know, can happen in baseball, you can
44
00:02:15.259 --> 00:02:18.000
actually get the ball to swing. So effectively like a
45
00:02:18.039 --> 00:02:21.060
baseball curveball, but what happens in cricket is the ball
46
00:02:21.379 --> 00:02:24.250
will come down at high speed, bounce, and then as
47
00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:26.710
it gets more spin off of the bounce, the aerodynamic
48
00:02:26.750 --> 00:02:29.610
properties actually cause the ball to turn in midair, which
49
00:02:29.669 --> 00:02:32.550
means if you can time it perfectly, the batter will
50
00:02:32.629 --> 00:02:34.530
set themselves up to actually hit the ball in one
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00:02:34.590 --> 00:02:37.280
spot be completely wrong, and the ball will actually curve
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around the batsman and hit the wicket. So very, very
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00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:43.680
effective if you can pull it off, but unfortunately very,
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very illegal in cricket. And honestly, John, we weren't really
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able to go back to South Africa until only this week.
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00:02:50.819 --> 00:02:53.199
So this week was the first time the Australian international
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cricket team has been back to South Africa since March
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2018 because partly because because of Sandgate. So, John, it's fascinating.
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It's another part of cricket we don't normally talk about
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because it was a pretty black part of our history.
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And actually at the time, even our prime minister had
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to step in and comment and say we need an
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investigation into the culture of cricket in Australia because it exposed,
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I guess you could say, some form of rule corruption.
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But it's just a fascinating story.
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And you know what?
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We're back to South Africa now. That's the main thing.
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But for a long time, Relations between the Australian and South.
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African teams were very frosty.
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And I don't know if we've still even recovered now.
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In baseball, they keep a piece of sandpaper in the
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pitcher's mitt. And so when it goes into his wind-up,
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he rubs it along the ball. Not every time. Doesn't
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have to. Because you're influencing the batter. If the batter
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thinks the ball's going to act funny, the batter's at
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a disadvantage. That also happens with the famous spitball. If
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you put moisture on one side of the ball, it's
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supposed to affect the way it comes across the plate.
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The story goes, and it's apocryphal, that one day a
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very famous pitcher was accused of throwing a spitball by
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the umpire. It's hard to catch him because the spit
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dries out before the umpire gets to the mound to
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inspect your mitt or inspect the ball. So, The pitcher that,
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I don't remember his name, he was famous though, was
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so upset about being accused of using a spitball, well,
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he probably did, that when he came out for an inning,
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he brought a whole bucket of water, put it on
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the mound, and took the ball and dunked the whole
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thing in the water and let the umpire come over
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and throw him out of the game. That's the story.
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Once upon a time, the spitball. Now, Jeremy, about sandpaper
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and cheating and all of that, I was unaware that
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Australia had indulged itself in that. That sounds more like
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the English team. Has it now not happened again, or
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is this something that each season somebody tries to get
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away with it?
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Well, we haven't seen it again in Australia, but there
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certainly has been other incidents in other teams. And I
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believe in the Indian Premier League, there's been a sandpaper incident.
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There was one, I believe, in the West Indies and
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the Caribbean as well in the past few years. But
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it is very rare now because it's actually very easy
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to detect and umpires know what to look for now
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with the ball. Because as you can imagine, in cricket,
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you play pretty much with one or two match balls.
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So you have the same ball the whole time. And
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that's apart from baseball where it's changed every couple of pitches.
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So.
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what actually happens is if you're sandpapering the ball, it
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becomes quite obvious that there's some tampering going on.
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But, you know, people have still tried it.
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It's a little bit tricky too to actually get away
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with it because often in cricket you don't put the
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ball in the mitt, you don't put the ball in
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the pocket, which means you have to reach into your
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pocket somehow, get the sandpaper onto your hand, rub it
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onto that sandpaper without somebody noticing and getting the sandpaper
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put away as well. So it is very, very hard
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to do and in Sandpaper Gate, partly why it was
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so severe with the penalties was because the team had
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actually practiced how to do this maneuver, how to actually
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get the sandpaper out without being caught, use it against
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the ball and get it away. So there's a lot
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of premeditation. which means, John, it really hasn't happened, I
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don't think, a lot since then. There might be some
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other techniques that haven't been picked up, but sandpaper is
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something that is very much looked out for by the umpires,
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something that's very, very serious if it happens, basically.
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Because of this precedence.
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But I can pretty much say that we don't typically
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get it in any given season.
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But you know what?
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Someone can try it again because it is a very,
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very powerful weapon if you can make it work.
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A young man named Nick Maddison. has performed badly in
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Durban against South Africa. What happened, Jeremy?
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Oh, yes, John.
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As if it wasn't bad enough, this was the first
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game since Sandpaper Gate.
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We're back in South Africa.
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Our opening batsman, Nick Maddison, stepped up to the plate
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with full of promise.
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He's one of our top batters. And then, sure enough,
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he let one ball go by, let.
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Two balls go by, let three, let 33 balls go
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by without being able to hit a single one.
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And then, sure enough, he was out.
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He basically had the ball come down the pitch, hit
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him on the leg in front of the middle stump,
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which is called leg before wicket, LBW, which got him
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out for a fat zero in the score. So honestly, John,
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one of our best batters got out for zero after
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33 balls. He got out for a duck, as we
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like to say in the cricket parlance, but It wasn't
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the opening we were hoping for there in Durban because
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we were expecting to really come out and be really,
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really strong against the South Africans. But what can I say?
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Maybe we're just warming up, but it really wasn't a
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good start.
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So a 33-ball duck means he didn't hit anything.
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He hit absolutely nothing.
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He couldn't get onto the ball whatsoever, which was unusual
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because the South Africans weren't doing anything different with their bowling.
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He was playing very conservatively.
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It looked like he was watching the ball, trying to
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pick it, but he just couldn't get onto it. So
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it went terribly. And basically, I mean, South Africa did
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win that first day test. So we're currently batting again
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and doing okay, but he may have put us far
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behind and we may not be able to recover.
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Let's pick that game up next week when we speak,
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maybe even Wednesday when we speak of the weather. I said,
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What's happening in Durban? Well, they're going to move to
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a different city by Wednesday. It's a five-day test, and
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they're probably going to play all over South Africa. Jeremy Zakas,
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in New South Wales, where the weather's unpredictable, the snakes
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are on the march, and cricket right now is in
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the hands of the people who've sworn off sandpaper. For
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the moment, a podcast of my conversation with Jeremy Zakas
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in New South Wales about the snakes attacking, about cricket,
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about sandpaper, about Australia in the Southern Hemisphere come springtime.
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Always available at Amazon, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, and other distinguished venues.
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I'm John Batchelor.
