Abstract
In 2018, a young Australian cricketer named Cameron Bancroft was caught on television broadcast shoving what would later emerge to be sandpaper down his white trousers. It was the start of a frenzied public and media storm that culminated in the suspension of three players, the resignation of the head coach, and commissioned reviews into the sport’s national peak body. Later that year, two long-form books were published: Gideon Haigh’s Crossing the line: how Australian cricket lost its way and Geoff Lemon’s Steve Smith’s Men: behind Australian cricket’s downfall. This chapter examines these two texts as examples of cricket writing—considering the authors’ approach; their writing styles; and the thematic interpretations they present. Haigh’s is a comprehensive chronology, supported by a rigorous analysis of secondary data, whereas Lemon’s close position as a travelling journalist with the team allows him to represent himself within his book. While Lemon’s work is more character driven, both are equally damning of the systemic problems embedded within Cricket Australia. As cricket texts, they reveal the power of long-form work and techniques that make meaning from an intense, unwieldly moment in Australian men’s cricket.
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Notes
- 1.
The national governing body of cricket in Australia. At the time of the incident in 2018, the CEO was James Sutherland. He has since been replaced.
- 2.
Both ‘Sandpapergate’ and ‘Sandpaper-gate’ has been used in writing about this particular incident. For this chapter, I will use ‘Sandpapergate’.
- 3.
Bancroft and Smith were required to wait for 12 months after their bans to be considered for leadership positions. David Warner will never again be able to take a leadership position for domestic or international Australian cricket.
- 4.
In 2020, the English Cricket Board introduced a new short format of the game called The Hundred, in which each team faces 100 balls. It is similar to Twenty20 cricket in style and length but remains its own format.
- 5.
The Argus Review was commissioned by Cricket Australia in 2011 in the wake of an Ashes defeat against England and a poor world Test ranking. Or, as David Lord (2011) suggested: “what’s wrong with Australian cricket?” The Argus Review took over nine months and was the subject of scrutiny because of its claim to be an independent investigation while including three former Australian Test captains as well as a former CEO of Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council. The Review encouraged sweeping changes, such as the inclusion of a head coach role with team selection responsibility.
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Ellison, E. (2023). Notes on a Scandal: Lemon and Haigh on Australian cricket’s ‘Sandpapergate’. In: McGowan, L., Symons, K. (eds) Intersections of Sport and Society in Creative Writing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5585-5_4
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