Peter Handscomb was unfortunate to be dragged into the ball-tampering scandal back in March.
Television cameras showed him relaying information between the dugout and Cameron Bancroft, who had just been caught applying an unidentified object – later found to be sandpaper – to ball. The laugh he shared with Bancroft didn’t help. Handscomb later said the footage was significantly edited to give such an impression.
Be that as it may, with Steve Smith and David Warner receiving 12-month bans and Bancroft a nine-month suspension, Handscomb recognises “there is opportunity” for a lot of the Australia A batsmen currently in Bengaluru for quadrangular series against India A, India B and South Africa A, although he regrets “the sad circumstances” in which the opportunity came about.
His hopes of doing that in India were dampened last week, when persistent rain in Vijayawada washed out the first three matches of the quadrangular series. The venue for the tournament has since been shifted to Bengaluru, but that one week, he said with a grin, “was a bit of long week, unfortunately”.
Thank heavens, then, for makeshift squash courts. “The boys found a way to stay in high spirits,” he said. “We had a makeshift squash court in our team room against the wall, with a couple of tennis racquets and a tennis ball. We found ways to entertain ourselves and kept the mood up, which is good.”
And likewise, outside of cricket, he kept his mood up despite the whole drama in March. In the last five months, he hasn’t taken to the field even once. Instead, he went on a safari with his long-time girlfriend, and got engaged.
He’s in a happy space. Now to translate that to the field.
