Published: Nov 02, 2018, 10:18 AM (IST)
Edited: Nov 02, 2018, 10:18 AM (IST)
As Australia and South Africa prepare to meet for the first time since the ball-tampering scandal resulted in bans on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameoron Bancroft in April, touring skipper Faf du Plessis has reiterated his stance that there will be no ball-tampering jibes during the series.
Sunday’s first ODI in Perth pits Aaron Finch‘s Australia against du Plessis’ visiting team, and the focus for both captains is on winning.
“I don’t think us as a team would go there,” du Plessis told reporters at the WACA Friday. “It’s got nothing to do with the cricket – it’s in the past. For us, it’s business as usual.”
Du Plessis’ comments come after the results of an exhaustive review by the Ethics Centre into the behaviour of the Australian cricket team and Cricket Australia were released on Monday, in which it was stated that Australian cricket “has lost its balance and stumbled badly” and that its cricketers live in a “gilded bubble – disconnected, for much of the year, from families, friends and the grounding influence of community”.
Finch, whom Australia will hope leads them at the WACA after being struck on the right index finger by Mitchell Starc during training today, stressed on the importance of the home team’s batsmen to stand up after a shaky tour of the UAE.
“We’ve struggled with the bat for quite a while now and it’s up to us guys who get first go of it in Perth next Sunday against South Africa to start rewriting that last probably 18 months,” he said. “I think that when you have a bit of change in the side, it’s about starting to build a really good dynamic and a really good chemistry within that side.
“We’ve been trying new things, we’ve been out in the nets for hours. You can’t question it from that point of view. It’s just about making sure that we start to build partnerships again.”
