Former Australian bowling coach David Saker wouldn't be opposed to Cricket Australia reopening its investigation into the infamous Cape Town ball-tampering scandal of 2018, but he isn't convinced any new information would surface.
The nightmare roared back to life when former Australian opening batsman Cameron Bancroft, the man responsible for using sandpaper to tamper with the ball, hinted that the bowlers were aware of the scheme.
"Uh … yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it's pretty probably self-explanatory," Bancroft told The Guardian when prompted on whether the bowlers were in on the plan.
Cricket Australia issued Bancroft a nine-month suspension from international and domestic cricket and hit then-skipper Steve Smith and then-vice-captain David Warner with year-long bans. Smith was also slapped with a two-year leadership suspension and Warner a lifelong leadership ban.
But none of Australia's bowling unit – which consisted of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh and Nathan Lyon – were punished, with Cricket Australia finding none of them responsible. Neither Saker, who resigned from his post in February 2019, nor then-coach Darren Lehmann were found to have been involved.
"Obviously a lot of things went wrong at that time," Saker told The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
"There was a lot of people to blame. It could have been me to blame, it could have been someone else. It could have been stopped and it wasn't, which is unfortunate.
"Cameron's a very nice guy. He's just doing it to get something off his chest … He's not going to be the last.
"You could point your finger at me, you could point your finger at Boof (Lehmann). Could you point it at other people? Of course you could.
"The disappointing thing is it's never going to go away. Regardless of what's said, we all know that we made a monumental mistake. The gravity wasn't as plain until it all came out.
"I don't think it'd be unfair (to reopen the investigation). I just don't know what they're going to find out.
"It's like the underarm; it's never going to go away."
Cricket Australia issued a statement in the wake of Bancroft's comments.
"CA has maintained all along that if anyone is in possession of new information in regards to the Cape Town Test of 2018 they should come forward and present it," the governing body said.
"The investigation conducted at the time was detailed and comprehensive. Since then, no one has presented new information to CA that casts doubt on the investigation's findings."
Smith has ambitions to captain Australia again and the man who replaced him, wicketkeeper batsman Tim Paine, backed his star teammate's quest.
That likely wouldn't be until 36-year-old Paine retires from international cricket.
Legendary Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy believes Paine is capable of leading the men's national team through to the end of the 2023 Ashes tour of England.
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