Cameron Bancroft tried to tamper with the ball on day-3 of the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town. After enough on-field drama, Bancroft, along with Aussie skipper Steve Smith, admitted to ball-tampering in a public confession on Saturday. Smith also revealed that the “leadership group” knew about the incident and the coaches were not involved.

Later, Australia vice-captain David Warner was found to be a part of that group. Both Smith and Warner subsequently stepped down as captain and vice-captain respectively for the remainder of the Test and Australia lost the match by 322 runs under Tim Paine's stewardship.

Bancroft and Smith were fined and given demerit points for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct for Player and Player Support Personnel.

On the other hand, Cricket Australia (CA) head of integrity Iain Roy had been tasked with carrying out an investigation following the incident. Cricket Australia [CA] chief executive James Sutherland confirmed that the preliminary findings have confirmed that prior knowledge of the incident in Cape Town was confined to only the three players reported.

All three convicted players will be sent home and Renshaw, Maxwell, and Burns will replace them. Tim Paine has been appointed as the new captain.

Although Australia coach Darren Lehmann has been cleared of the ball-tampering blames, the cricketing world could not fathom how only three batsmen took a decision to alter the condition of the ball to help the bowling attack without any involvement of the coach or the bowlers themselves.

Here are some of the tweets by the former cricketers and the journalists regarding this issue.

 

To many reputations on the line for the full story not to come out. Cape Town change room is a very small place!

— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) March 27, 2018

Me thinks the Hole has just got a little deeper & bigger for Cricket Australia .....

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 27, 2018

I can’t believe for one minute that only three players knew what was going on...bowlers, coach and bowling coach weren’t involved in discussions of how to get the ball moving...whether it be by cheating or not!  #sandpapergate

— Matt Prior (@MattPrior13) March 27, 2018

So, three batsmen hatched a plan to tamper with the ball to HELP the bowlers. And bowlers didn’t know about it. I need time to process this. #SandpaperGate

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) March 27, 2018

No firm statement on the no-objection certificates for the IPL. Will depend on the quantum of the verdict. But seems almost certain that Smith and Warner won't be at the IPL

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 27, 2018

You know what Aus is the only team where the leadership group consists of captain vice captain and a kid!! Wow! Revelation.