David Warner, Steve Smith Return to Scene of Ball-Tampering Scandal

A little over two years after Steve Smith and David Warner were involved in one of cricket’s most controversial scandals, the duo returns to Newlands, Cape Town, where Australia take on South Africa in the decider – third T20I on Wednesday.

Smith and Warner, then captain and vice-captain respectively, admitted to have tampered with the ball during the third Test between Australia and South Africa, giving birth to the infamous ball tampering scandal. Smith and Warner served their 12-month long bans before returning ahead of last year’s World Cup but have faced criticism across various venues for their act.

Nearly 24 months later, Smith and Warner have played in front of packed crowd at Wanderers, Johannesburg and St. George’s Park in Port Elizabeth but have not faced any episode yet. That said, how the crowd behaves in Newlands, remains to be seen although Warner has been pretty pleased with the crowd’s reception in the first two T20Is.