Ball-tampering row: Ricky Ponting shocked by Smith and Bancroft’s revelations
“I’ve seen a couple of headlines (since the interviews), which I’ve been shocked at, I must admit. Some of the things that have been said have been quite shocking to me,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said that he was shocked by some of the revelations made by Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft on how they carried out ball-tampering in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in March. Smith and Bancroft spoke about the fateful day in Australian cricket with Fox Cricket.
“I’ve seen a couple of headlines (since the interviews), which I’ve been shocked at, I must admit. Some of the things that have been said have been quite shocking to me,” Ponting told cricket.com.au.
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“We’re nine months on from this stuff and there’s still a lot being spoken about what happened in Cape Town. Now that those stories are out there, it’s going to be interesting to see what the reaction is tomorrow in newspapers and news channels. There’s enough in those stories to raise a few eyebrows,” added Ponting.
Ponting expressed that the Australian players and Cricket Australia may not be happy with Fox Sports for airing the interviews on Boxing Day.
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“From a wholly journalistic approach, you can understand the reasons why it was aired today. You’ve probably got a big percentage of the population watching the cricket today and they’ll be reading about it tomorrow. I can understand how that could happen. I’m not sure how happy the players would be about it or Cricket Australia, because it’s a pretty special moment in Australian cricket on a day like today. So, we’ll see what the reaction is,” said Ponting.
