Former skipper Ricky Ponting believes there weren't enough leaders in the Australian team at the time which led to the infamous ball-tampering scandal at Newlands in March 2018. Then captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were given respective one-year suspensions for their part while Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months for using sand-paper on the surface of the ball. Ponting stated that leaders in side have the ability to say no to such things and that Australian team lacked it.
"I was a bit worried that with a lot of the experience going out of our team at the same time, that there would be a bit of a void left with experienced players to be able to say 'no' basically," Ponting was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo during a fund-raising dinner for the Chappell Foundation at the SCG on Tuesday.
"If I look at where things got at Cape Town I just don't think there were enough people around that team to say 'no' to some of those guys. Things got completely out of control. That's very much an outsider's view on it. I had nothing to do with the team really until the last couple of years around some Twenty20 cricket and the World Cup last year," he added.
Smith and Warner will fly out with the Australia squad on Friday for a limited overs tour in the duo's first visit to the country after the infamous scandal. Teammate Josh Hazlewood believes the pair will be ready for whatever South African crowds throw at them.
"Steve and Dave have ticked off pretty much every box since coming back," Hazlewood told reporters in Sydney on Thursday. "It's just another one of those and I don't think it'll faze them one bit. They probably play better when it's like this. It's nothing we haven't experienced before ... we'll be fine."
((With agency inputs))
