Cricket Australia have confirmed their integrity unit has reached out to Cameron Bancroft following his eyebrow-raising response when pressed in a recent interview about whether the Australian bowlers knew of the ball-tampering during the infamous ball-tampering saga.
With Bancroft preparing for a country cricket stint in Durham, the 28-year-old spoke to The Guardian recently where he was asked to comment on whether any of the Australian bowlers at the time were aware of what was happening.
While he attempted to remain tight-lipped on whether his teammates were aware at the time of what he was doing, Bancroft during the interview ultimately responded with: "Uh … yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it's pretty, probably, self-explanatory."
Cricket Australia's head of national teams, Ben Oliver, revealed today the integrity team had reached out to Bancroft to see if he had any new information to provide them with following his comments.
"There was obviously a thorough investigation into that incident," Oliver said.
"There were actions taken on the back of that and then since that time, everyone who's been involved in the team has worked incredibly hard to rebuild confidence and to ultimately sort of aspire to make Australians proud of the Australian cricket team.
"So from that point of view that processes have taken place.
"I think we've maintained all the way through that if anyone had any new information relating to that incident that we've encouraged people to come forward and discuss that with our integrity unit.
"In this particular case, our integrity team have reached out to Cam again extending that invitation to him if he does have any new information.
"We'll wait to see his response on that, we haven't had had a response. But in saying that we're operating on different time zones."
Bancroft, who was captured by cameras using sandpaper to affect the ball during a Test match against South Africa, received a nine-month ban for his involvement, while Steve Smith and David Warner were both stripped of their leadership roles and hit with one-year suspensions.
Earlier today, former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke claimed the bowling attack must have known about sandpaper being used.
"A team like that, at the highest level, when the ball is such an important part of the game…I don't think anybody is surprised that more than three people knew about it," Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio's The Big Sports Breakfast.
"[The bowlers have] got to hold the ball to bowl with it.
"So, if there's sandpaper being rubbed on the ball they have to get the ball back to the bowler and the bowler has to hang on to it before he lets it go.
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