Tim Paine: South Africa indulged in ball-tampering after Newlands Test match

Former Australia skipper Tim Paine made a controversial allegation on the South African side that he locked horns with during the infamous Test trip in early 2018.

Paine has claimed that the tourists indulged in tampering with the ball in the Test match immediately after the one marred with the sandpaper-gate scandal in Cape Town. 

Part of the Australian side under Steve Smith at the time, Paine said the SuperSport broadcasting team, which was quick to expose Cameron Bancroft's act of rubbing the sandpaper on the ball at Newlands, deliberately kept their cameras away from the Proteas when they engaged in similar ball-tampering activity in the fourth Test at Johannesburg. 

Writing in his autobiography titled, 'The Paid Price', Paine unveiled that he witnessed one of the South African players "having a huge crack" at the cricket ball for the fourth and final Test of the series that stood at 2-1 in the home team's favour at that point. 

"I saw it happen in the fourth Test of that series," Paine wrote. "Think about that. After everything that had happened in Cape Town, after all the headlines and bans and carry on."

"I was standing at the bowlers' end in the next Test when a shot came up on the screen of a South African player at mid-off having a huge crack at the ball."

"The television director, who had played an active role in catching out Cam, immediately pulled the shot off the screen. We went to the umpires about it, which might seem a bit poor, but we'd been slaughtered and were convinced they'd been up to it since the first Test. But the footage got lost. As it would," he added. 

Paine denies planning for Newlands incident

Tim Paine also alleged there was no planning within the dressing room to go through the ball-tampering act and that he was left absolutely stunned when he saw Bancroft trying to alter the condition of the ball in play.

Paine claimed he had no idea that Bancroft was hiding the sandpaper in his pants, as shown on camera by the SuperSport broadcasting team. 

"I was thinking 'what the f**k'," Paine wrote. "A sense of dread came over us all."

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The ex-skipper said the ball-tampering is a commonplace in the sport, be it illegally via rubbing a substance on the ball or in fair means by throwing it along the turf.

But he accepted that Australia's use of sandpaper in the given incident was "shameful". 

In the book, Paine also alleged that there was a genuine effort from the South Africans to provoke the Australian team throughout the series, with David Warner regularly targetted by the hosts.

He said Warner had every right to feel upset and angry when Quinton de Kock made comments about his wife Candice, ultimately leading to a stairway confrontation in Durban.