Cameron Bancroft is out of quarantine and, after being “brutally cold” on his arrival in Durham last week, the Australian batsman is beginning to thaw out and open up to another season of English county cricket. “I wouldn’t say the mornings have been red-hot,” he says dryly at Durham’s serene Riverside ground, “but they’re significantly warmer than when I got here and the wind was coming in from the Arctic.”
His five-day period in quarantine was also a minor inconvenience compared to the nine-month ban he endured from cricket after his role in the ball-tampering saga against South Africa in March 2018.
Bancroft is a thoughtful man and he takes care to explain the lessons he absorbed during that painful humiliation. He feels “almost grateful for the mistake” he made because it turned him into a better and more reflective person.
Before we reach this defining moment, however, Bancroft provides a searing insight into the unforgiving pressures that shadow elite sport when I ask him to take us back to the second day of his Test debut against England at the Gabba in Brisbane in November 2017. After England had been bowled out for 302 in their first innings, Bancroft walked out with David Warner to face Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. “I remember feeling so nervous that I couldn’t control my body,” Bancroft reveals. “I had a lot of stress because I wanted to do really well and it was a dream of mine to play Test cricket for Australia.”
It is a moving admission and in the fourth over Bancroft nicked a ball from Broad and was caught behind. “I naturally felt disappointed,” Bancroft says, “but I was able to find a way in the second innings. Just knowing I’d been out there before was enough to calm down. I probably felt exactly the same in the first grade game I played in Perth and when I started state cricket. It’s very normal.”
Bancroft scored 82 not out as he and Warner shared an unbeaten partnership of 173 to seal a 10‑wicket victory at the Gabba. “Technically, I’m sure there are lots of mistakes and problems that I had. I don’t look that pretty but it was nice to find a way to get over the line.”
This is the highest score of Bancroft’s brief Test career so far. He is emphatic when asked to identify the best innings of the 10 Tests he has played. “No doubt. The first innings in Cape Town [in the fateful ball-tampering match]. That was the best innings I’ve probably played in any form of cricket. I scored in a lot of different areas, hit [14] boundaries and felt able to put pressure on the South African bowlers. Off the front and the back foot, I felt really good even though we struggled to build partnerships. It was a great confidence boost against quality bowling. Rabada, Philander, [Morkel] …”
The South Africa pace attack was relentless and Bancroft shakes his head. “It didn’t stop.”
There is a poignant irony in the fact that Bancroft scored 77 assured runs, off 103 balls, in the very match when, in South Africa’s second innings, he was caught on camera using a piece of sandpaper to tamper with the ball. When he finally realised he had been rumbled he shoved the incriminating evidence down his underpants. It was a despairing act which could not save him or Australian cricket from ignominy. He and the two other named culprits (Warner and the captain Steve Smith) were justifiably punished for cheating but Bancroft nods gently when I say it seems a small private tragedy that he acted so stupidly just after he had found his way as a Test batsman.
“In purely cricketing terms,” he admits, “it makes me feel a little shit. I was just settling and then, of course, it was lost.”
It should be underlined that Bancroft accepts full responsibility for his actions. “That’s exactly what I was – lost,” he says quietly. “I was obviously disappointed because I’d let the team down and carried out an act that completely compromised my values. But it came down for me just when I was really improving at that level. It felt like I’d thrown a lot away. I hadn’t got a Test 100 yet but I felt I was on my way to achieving that, so I was extremely disappointed to give that up. But that’s how important that part of my life was then. I’ve come to learn that it is important but it doesn’t dictate my life in the same way.”
Bancroft was so desperate to succeed as an Australian Test cricketer he was ready to do almost anything to feel valued by the other players. “Absolutely. I grew up idolising Test cricketers and that was a dream I wanted for me. Holding that so sacred to my heart made me a little naive and vulnerable to wanting to be embraced and a part of it all. At that point I hadn’t really grasped the concept that cricket’s just a game. Yes, you’re playing for Australia. Yes, it’s Test cricket. Yes, it’s something to be really proud of. But it is just a game.
“I invested too much to the point where I lost control of my values. What had become important to me was being liked, being well valued, feeling really important to my teammates, like I was contributing something by using sandpaper on a cricket ball. That’s something I don’t think I even understood until that mistake happened. But it’s part of the journey and a hard lesson I needed to learn.”
There is much to admire in Bancroft’s honesty but it also seems wrong that only Smith, Warner and he were blamed when others in the team must have known what was happening. At least some of the bowlers, surely, knew what he was doing?
There is a long pause before Bancroft answers: “Yeah, look, all I wanted to do was to be responsible and accountable for my own actions and part. Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory. I guess one thing I learnt through the journey and being responsible is that’s where the buck stops [with Bancroft himself]. Had I had better awareness I would have made a much better decision.”
I ask the question again. So some of the bowlers did know?
Bancroft’s hesitation is even longer. “Uh … yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it’s pretty probably self-explanatory.”
His answer shows his acute discomfort in implicating any of his teammates. It has been confirmed in public investigations that Warner asked Bancroft to rough up the ball by using sandpaper. Smith, as their captain, knew what they were planning and he did nothing to stop them. Each of the three men have suffered but the rest of the team have not admitted any prior knowledge of cheating.
Bancroft does not name anyone and he is happier when explaining how he turned misery into a positive experience. During his nine-month ban, after he pulled himself out of depression, he took Spanish lessons, practised yoga and meditation and worked in Australia with a charity that supports children with cancer as part of his community service.
“I threw myself into lots of different things that gave me perspective on life. I remember being in Johannesburg waiting for my flight home. It was probably the only night in my life where I lay in bed and couldn’t sleep the whole night, literally eyes to the ceiling, and that was a really difficult experience for me. It showed how impactful it had been on me. Our sports psych at the Waca told me straightaway it was about how we rebuild and look after my wellbeing, and then find some purpose and move forward. That first month was pretty flattening but it was also proactive – and it needed to be otherwise I’d be stuck in the past all the time.”
Has Bancroft, who is 28, grown as a person? “Yes. It doesn’t condone, whatsoever, the mistake I made but in terms of all I’ve learned about myself and life, I’m almost grateful for the mistake in a way. It’s been an interesting journey and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It changed me and I’ve become the person I am today. It’s also taught me to deal with the anxiety and disappointment that comes with cricket and everyday life. There are always going to be challenges. It’s how you’re able to stay as balanced as possible when that happens.”
In August 2019, after a successful English summer with Durham, Bancroft’s equilibrium and resolve meant he was called back into the Australian Test team for the first two Ashes Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s. “I was proud of that. I would have loved it to have been a bit more of a fairytale. You do amazingly well, score hundreds and stay in the team. But it wasn’t to be.”
Bancroft scored 44 runs in four innings, while he was ritually abused by the English crowd, before being dropped. He also struggled the following Australian summer. After averaging just 13 in state cricket, he was also dropped by Western Australia in early 2020. His response in the season which has just finished has been impressive. He averaged 48.42 and was named in the Sheffield Shield team of the year.
The sun is out while Bancroft talks to me at an event with Vertu Motors, an official partner of Durham Cricket. His focus is firmly on Durham where, in his first season with the county in 2019, he hit 726 runs and averaged 45.37. That form propelled him back into the Test team and should he do the same again this English summer he has a real chance as only three front-line specialist batsmen – Smith, Warner and Marnus Labuschagne – have been granted red-ball contracts by Cricket Australia.
His first game for Durham will be next week and he suggests how at home he feels. “Being up here in the north-east you’re so far away from everyone else and I understand that – being from Western Australia. It can build great camaraderie and I think I can complement that really well.”
Bancroft regards Justin Langer, Australia’s head coach, as his mentor. He even pasted a poster of Langer on his bedroom wall when he was a boy, and their close relationship will not hurt his chances of another Test comeback – possibly in the Ashes in Australia later this year. “That’s a goal and a door I haven’t shut for myself. But it’s also something I’m not mentally stressing about and obsessing about either. If I’m in the right place, scoring runs, doing what I enjoy doing, I’m sure there’ll be another opportunity for me.”
Bancroft smiles when asked if he feels more equipped now to cope with Test cricket? “It’s hard to say. I’ll do the best I can. That’s the thing about cricket – you fail more often than you do well. I’ve failed a hell of a lot in the game but if I get that chance again then I hope I’m able to improve on how I did previously. That’s all I can ask for from myself.”