Ranking Test cricket's greatest scandals as Australia prepare to tour South Africa on 9 October
Australia are due to play their first Test in South Africa since the sandpapergate scandal began on 9 October, and BBC's Test Match Special has asked listeners to rank the biggest controversies in Test cricket history.
Test Match Special assembled a panel to identify ten of the game's most famous scandals and is inviting readers to rank them in order of severity; the selection and the public vote accompany background pieces on each incident. The TMS feature frames the listener ballot as a way to revisit episodes that affected administrations, players and international relations.
The 1932-33 Bodyline tour is listed first among the episodes chronicled: Douglas Jardine, England's captain, ordered Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to bowl short, hostile deliveries aimed at Donald Bradman, provoking accusations of unsporting behaviour in an era without upper-body protection. A photograph from that series shows Harold Larwood striking Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield in the head with a bouncer during the third day of the Third Test at the Adelaide Oval in 1933. England won the series 4-1, a result the coverage says was almost lost in the infamy of the tactic.
The D'Oliveira affair in 1968 is described next: Basil D'Oliveira, a mixed-race all-rounder born in South Africa who had qualified to play for England, scored 158 in the final Test of the summer against Australia but was initially omitted from the touring party before being called up as a replacement for the injured Tom Cartwright. His inclusion drew criticism in South Africa and the tour was called off little more than a week later; South Africa played one more Test series at home to Australia the following year and then spent two decades out of international cricket, during which time a number of rebel tours took place with huge consequences for the players involved.
The 1975 Headingley incident and its fallout are covered: during the Ashes in England that year the series had been reduced to four Tests because of the inaugural men's World Cup earlier in the summer, and at the close of the fourth day of the third Test Australia were 220-3 chasing 445 when the pitch was vandalised overnight — holes were dug and oil poured on the surface by supporters of George Davis, with "George Davis is innocent" written on the wall around the ground. The Test was abandoned as a draw, meaning Australia retained the urn and the prospect of a decider at The Oval was lost; Davis was released in 1976 when his conviction was adjudged unsafe and the conviction was overturned entirely on appeal in 2011.
World Series Cricket and the 1987 confrontation in Pakistan are also among the incidents recounted: in the mid-1970s Kerry Packer recruited leading players to stage World Series Cricket after being rebuffed for TV rights, with Tony Greig signing and subsequently losing the England captaincy; WSC ran in 1977-78 and 1978-79 and included one-day matches and 'SuperTests' between Australia, West Indies and a World XI, and England won the 1978-79 Ashes 5-1 against an Australia depleted by Packer defections before a truce in 1979 secured TV rights for Nine. In 1987, umpire Shakoor Rana and England captain Mike Gatting clashed when Rana objected to a field placement, Gatting confronted the official, Rana refused to take the field the next day and play did not get under way until the fourth day, leaving long-lasting mistrust between England and Pakistan.
Ball-tampering and match-fixing scandals from the 1990s through the 2000s are presented in the TMS selection: in the mid-1990s scrutiny of ball-tampering was acute, exemplified by television footage in a Lord's Test showing Michael Atherton appearing to rub dirt on the ball; Atherton said he was maintaining the condition of the ball and told the match referee he was using the dirt to keep his hands dry, but he later described a chaotic news conference in which he was "fed to the lions" and he considered resigning before escaping with a fine and remaining captain for another four years. The South African Hansie Cronje affair saw Cronje involved with Indian bookmakers and suggest fixing matches, culminating in a dead-rubber fifth Test at Centurion Park in 2000 where he negotiated with England skipper Nasser Hussain for both teams to forfeit an innings to engineer a result; Cronje confessed months later, gave evidence to the King Commission, was banned for life and died in a plane crash in 2002.
The list also includes the 2006 Oval Test forfeiture, the 2010 Lord's spot-fixing and the 2018 sandpapergate episode: at The Oval in 2006 umpire Darrel Hair asked for the ball to be changed on the fourth day, ball-tampering was alleged and Pakistan initially refused to take the field after tea, leading Hair and Billy Doctrove to award the match to England; the result was later changed to a draw and then reverted to an England win, Inzamam-ul-Haq was cleared of ball-tampering and Hair served a ban, and the match remains the only Test to have been forfeited. A 2010 News of the World sting paid agent Mazhar Majeed for details of three no-balls arranged by Majeed and executed by Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir during the Lord's Test; all three received ICC bans and were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat at gambling and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments, with Butt jailed for two and a half years, Asif for one year and Amir, aged only 17 at the time, for six months. In the 2018 third Test in South Africa, cameras showed Cameron Bancroft appearing to rub the ball with a small yellow object; Bancroft and captain Steve Smith admitted attempting to alter the condition of the ball and it emerged the object was sandpaper, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was "bitterly disappointed", Smith was sacked along with vice-captain David Warner who was described in the coverage as the architect of the plot, all three players served lengthy bans and coach Darren Lehmann, while cleared of prior knowledge, resigned.
TMS will reveal the results of the listener ranking on its podcast, and the feature includes fuller accounts of each scandal for readers to consult below the vote.