Test bowlers hit back after ball-tampering claims

Cameron Bancroft has backed down from his inflammatory comments about Australia's ball-tampering saga and reached out to the nation's Test bowlers.

Bancroft re-opened Australia's wounds over the weekend in an interview with 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 in Cape Town.

While he attempted to remain tight-lipped on whether his teammates knew anything about what he was doing, Bancroft ultimately responded with: "Uh … yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it's pretty, probably, self-explanatory."

Yesterday, Cricket Australia's head of national teams, Ben Oliver, revealed their integrity unity had reached out to Bancroft to see if he had any new information to provide them with following his comments.

But, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, Bancroft, who is playing county cricket in the UK, responded to CA overnight and indicated that he did not have significant new information to share.

It is also understood Bancroft has reached out to Australia's bowlers to explain the circumstances behind his comments, which have caused an uproar in just a few short days.

The four bowlers who played in that Test, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and Nathan Lyon, also released a strongly-worded public statement today in which they maintained their innocence.

"To The Australian Public," the statement starts.

"We pride ourselves on our honesty. So it's been disappointing to see that our integrity has been questioned by some journalists and past players in recent days in regard to the Cape Town Test of 2018.

"We have already answered questions many times on this issue, but we feel compelled to put the key facts on the record again:

"We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands

"And to those who, despite the absence of evidence, insist that 'we must have known' about the use of a foreign substance simply because we are bowlers, we say this: The umpires during that Test match, Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth, both very respected and experienced umpires, inspected the ball after the images surfaced on the TV coverage and did not change it because there was no sign of damage.

"We respectfully request an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo.
It has gone on too long and it is time to move on."

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.

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