Chair of selectors George Bailey confirmed that the exclusion of Cameron Bancroft from Australia’s Test squad against the West Indies had nothing to do with his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal.

Australia named their squad for the first Test of the two-match series against the West Indies, to begin at the Adelaide Oval from January 17, 2024.

David Warner’s retirement had led to speculations around Usman Khawaja’s potential opening partner. Australia announced that Steve Smith would move up from No.4 to open the batting for the first time. They also included Matt Renshaw in the 13-member squad.

With 945 runs at 59.06 in 2022/23 and 649 at 46.35 in the summer of 2023/24, Cameron Bancroft had been among the forerunner for the opening spot, but was not considered. It is worth a mention that over the same time period, Renshaw (497 at 71 in 2022/23, 484 at 44 in 2023/24) was slightly ahead.

Cricket Australia had banned captain Smith, vice-captain Warner, and Bancroft in the aftermath of the 2017/18 Cape Town ball-tampering scandal. In an interview with the Guardian in 2021, Bancroft had said that it was “pretty probably self-explanatory” that the Australian bowlers were aware of the act.

“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,” responded Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, and Nathan Lyon in a subsequent joint statement on Starc’s personal website.

After serving his ban, Bancroft did play in the Edgbaston and the Lord’s Test matches of the 2019 Ashes, but never for Australia since then. Smith, meanwhile, has led Australia again, while Warner’s farewell Test match at Sydney last week was widely celebrated.

Selection is never an easy task but the oversight of Cameron Bancroft is shocking.
His first class numbers are so compelling against his peers it feels there is another agenda which I hope was communicated to him honestly! #Bancroft

— Tom Moody (@TomMoodyCricket) January 9, 2024

On January 9, Tom Moody posted a tweet, calling Bancroft’s omission “shocking”, suggesting if there was “another agenda” and if he had been communicated about it.

When asked by the media whether Bancroft’s omission was due to his statement, chair of selectors Bailey responded: “I’m glad you asked that because I wanted to touch on it. It’s categorically no, and I’ve shared this with Cameron on a number of occasions.

“That has never at any stage been discussed from the panel’s perspective. It’s purely a cricketing decision. There is not a member of the team that would have an issue with Cam playing. We certainly don’t have an issue with it.

“I think a lot of people tend to forget the fact that Cam’s actually played Test cricket since returning from the ban. It was a long time ago. We’ve all moved well past that. I’d be disappointed if people were looking to that as a reason. All I can do is reiterate to you and to Cam that’s not the case. Never has been and never will be.”

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