Australian bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon have come out with a strong combined statement, denying the allegations that they knew of their side’s ball-tampering plans in the Sangerpapergate at Newlands in 2018.

Cameron Bancroft, who received a nine-month suspension after confessing to using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball in the Test, recently said that it was “self-explanatory” whether the bowlers knew of his attempts. His comments led to wide speculation and conjecture around the topic, as the cricket community, including some notable ex-players, began analysing the words and actions of the bowlers during that incident.

At the time, all the bowlers had denied knowing about the tampering attempts. After waiting for a couple of days after Bancroft’s statement, the quartet of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc released a joint statement on Starc’s website, denying involvement once again and requesting the audience to “stop rumour-mongering”. The site has since crashed, possibly under the weight of traffic coming to read the statement.

The statement addressed the Australian public, and while the bowlers maintained that they had no awareness of a foreign substance being brought to the ground, they conceded that they’ve learned their lessons from the incident.

Here’s what the statement said:

To The Australian Public

We pride ourselves on our honesty. So it’s been disappointing to see that our integrity has been questioned by some journalists and past players in recent days in regard to the Cape Town Test of 2018.

We have already answered questions many times on this issue, but we feel compelled to put the key facts on the record again:

• We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands

• And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that ‘we must have known’ about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.

None of this excuses what happened on the field that day at Newlands. It was wrong and it should never have happened.

We’ve all learned valuable lessons and we’d like to think the public can see a change for the better in terms of the way we play, the way we behave and respect the game. Our commitment to improving as people and players will continue.

We respectfully request an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo. It has gone on too long and it is time to move on.

Regards
Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon

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