David Warner and Steve Smith were banned for 1 year by Cricket Australia after ball-tampering scandal against South Africa (Credit: AP) Australia and South Africa begin their three-Test series on Friday at Kingsmead. Since the controversial Sandpapergate series in 2018, Australia has not visited South Africa for a Test match. Cameron Bancroft, along with skipper Steve Smith and David Warner, secretly tampered with the ball with sandpaper in order to help pacers with reverse swing in Newlands. The first Test is scheduled to start tomorrow, and the sandpapergate is being extensively covered by international media. The person in charge of SuperSport's live coverage that day, Alvin Naicker, tells BBC Sport that Bancroft was unintentionally caught in the act. His team was working as usual when they learned, to their complete dismay, what was going on the playing field. "The way the Australians were caught was an absolute fluke. No one mentioned anything to me. The first Test in Durban spiralled out of control in terms of behaviour, then in Port Elizabeth for the second Test, there were still some fireworks going on. We still didn't understand. The ball went to the wicketkeeper, then to Bancroft, and he was shining the ball. First, it was on his pants, then the next ball, the cameraman happened to stay on Bancroft because he was not shining the ball on his pants, but he was rubbing the ball on his palm,” Naicker said. "When he threw the ball on, he put his hand in his pocket. The cameraman - and these are big, big lens cameras - he zoomed into his pocket. The slow-mo operator looked at it, spooled it back and forth, then zoomed in and could see the yellow spot." "They take a feed from broadcast but they also have to insert their own graphics and commercialisation. Between deliveries they tend to stay with live play, then at the end of the over, they go to their commercials or whatever in the stadium. It was quite fortunate that when we showed it, it was in between deliveries, not at the end of the over. "When Bancroft looked up at the screen and saw it, he removed it and put it in his jocks. The cameraman recorded it. It still wasn't live, we played a replay," Naicker said. The Australian criminal was apprehended as a result. Different bans for each of the three ensued. Smith sobbed on television. Later, the captaincy was taken away. To be honest, the dispute has not subsided. The Australian squad has been heckled and jeered numerous times subsequently, notably during the 2019 World Cup in England. Smith was being mercilessly pursued by the crowd during an India-Australia match, and Virat had to help him. The next few weeks will be fairly excellent for Test cricket as two of the best teams play each other. Nikhil is an accomplished sports journalist with extensive experience spanning several years across digital, and multimedia platforms. Currently contr... View More