Eight years after the sandpapergate ball-tampering scandal that shook global cricket to its core, Australia is set to kick off its first Test tour of South Africa on October 9, marking one of the most highly anticipated and sensitive homecomings in the sport’s modern history. To coincide with this landmark moment, BBC’s Test Match Special (TMS) has launched a fan poll to determine what the public considers the greatest scandal in Test cricket’s centuries-long history. A panel of TMS cricket experts has shortlisted 10 of the sport’s most infamous controversies, inviting supporters to rank the incidents by their scale and impact; full results of the public vote will be revealed exclusively on the TMS podcast, with detailed profiles of each scandal available for reference alongside the poll.
The oldest controversy on the shortlist dates back to the 1932-33 England tour of Australia, remembered forever as the Bodyline series. With legendary Australian batter Donald Bradman dominating global cricket, England captain Douglas Jardine devised a divisive new tactic to neutralize him: ordering fast bowlers Harold Larwood and Bill Voce to repeatedly bowl short, hostile deliveries aimed at Australian batsmen’s bodies. At a time when batters wore no protective padding for their upper bodies, the strategy was widely condemned as unsportsmanlike and a violation of cricket’s unwritten spirit of fair play. Tensions boiled over beyond the pitch, escalating to diplomatic tensions between the two nations and threatening to strain intergovernmental relations. England ultimately won the series 4-1, but the result is largely forgotten overshadowed by the scandal that changed cricket strategy forever.
Another politically charged scandal, the 1968 D’Oliveira Affair, transformed international cricket’s relationship with apartheid South Africa. Mixed-race South African all-rounder Basil D’Oliveira had emigrated to England and qualified to play for the national side, and was in line for selection ahead of England’s planned tour of the segregationist nation. Despite scoring a match-winning 158 against Australia that summer, D’Oliveira was initially omitted from the squad, only called up as a last-minute replacement for injured bowler Tom Cartwright. His inclusion sparked immediate outrage in South Africa’s apartheid government, and the tour was canceled just over a week later. South Africa played just one more Test series before being suspended from international cricket for 22 years, a ban that lasted until the end of apartheid, with only a series of controversial rebel tours breaking the isolation in the intervening decades.
One of the most unusual controversies in Test cricket occurred during the 1975 Ashes series at Headingley. With the series shortened to four Tests to accommodate the inaugural men’s Cricket World Cup, Australia held a 1-0 lead and looked set to retain the Ashes. England had a golden chance to level the series in the third Test, with Australia reaching 220-3 chasing 445 at the close of play on day four, setting up a thrilling final day finish. Overnight, however, the pitch was vandalized: supporters of convicted armed robber George Davis, who claimed he was wrongfully imprisoned, dug holes into the playing surface, poured oil over the wicket, and spray-painted pro-Davis slogans on stadium walls. The Test was forced to be called off as a draw, allowing Australia to retain the Ashes and robbing England of a shot at a series-deciding win at The Oval. Davis’s conviction was later overturned on appeal in 2011, 36 years after he was first released when his conviction was deemed unsafe.
In the mid-1970s, Australian media mogul Kerry Packer upended traditional cricket’s power structure with World Series Cricket (WSC), a breakaway competition that split the sport. Packer had approached the Australian Cricket Board with a lucrative offer for broadcast rights to home cricket matches, seeking content for his new Channel Nine network, but the board rejected his bid in favor of a deal with the public Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In response, Packer launched his own rival competition, recruiting the world’s top players to compete in one-day matches and new-format “SuperTests” between teams representing Australia, West Indies, and a World XI. The biggest signing was England captain Tony Greig, who helped recruit other top players in exchange for a role in the organization; Greig was immediately stripped of his England captaincy, and the 1977 Ashes tour was overshadowed by the schism. After two seasons, Packer and the Australian Board negotiated a truce that gave Channel Nine exclusive broadcast rights in Australia. Many of WSC’s most groundbreaking innovations, including colored player uniforms and day-night matches with floodlights, remain core features of modern cricket today.
The 1987 tour of Pakistan by England brought one of the most high-profile on-field clashes between a captain and an umpire. England had already lost the first Test amid widespread frustration over home umpiring decisions, and the appointment of Shakoor Rana, who had previously clashed with New Zealand skipper Jeremy Coney, for the second Test in Faisalabad only heightened tensions. On day two, Rana halted play to object to a field placement set by England captain Mike Gatting, sparking a furious, public confrontation that was captured on camera and replayed repeatedly around the cricketing world. Rana refused to take the field the following day, leaving England waiting on the pitch for hours with no play, and only resumed after intervention from administrators on day four. A full tour cancellation was narrowly avoided, but mistrust between the cricket boards of England and Pakistan lingered for more than a decade after the incident. Gatting later said he deeply regretted the confrontation.
Ball-tampering allegations returned to the forefront in 1994, when England captain Michael Atherton was caught on live television rubbing dry dirt onto the match ball during a Lord’s Test against South Africa. Atherton claimed he was only using the dirt to keep his hands dry, rather than altering the ball’s condition to gain an unfair advantage, a story that drew widespread skepticism. The scandal dominated front pages across the UK, culminating in a chaotic press conference where Atherton later described himself as “fed to the lions”. He considered resigning the captaincy, but ultimately received only a fine and retained his position for another four years.
One of the most damaging match-fixing scandals in cricket history centered on South African captain Hansie Cronje, one of the most respected figures in South African sport and a close associate of Nelson Mandela. Cronje was slowly drawn into a criminal network with Indian bookmakers, and began bribing teammates to fix parts of matches to satisfy betting markets. His most infamous plot came during a dead-rubber fifth Test against England at Centurion Park in 2000: heavy rain had left the match set for an inevitable draw, but Cronje convinced both sides to forfeit an innings, setting up a dramatic final-day run chase that England completed. The England team had no knowledge of the plot, and Cronje’s scheme was only uncovered months later. He confessed to his crimes, gave public testimony at the King Commission of Inquiry into match-fixing, and received a lifetime ban from all professional cricket. He died in a 2002 plane crash just two years after the scandal broke, leaving a complicated and tarnished legacy.
Another controversial ball-tampering incident at the Oval in 2006 made history as the first and only Test match ever forfeited. Pakistan had already lost the series against England, but was well on its way to winning the final Test when umpire Darrell Hair, a controversial Australian official, accused Pakistan of tampering with the ball and called for an immediate change. After tea, Pakistan refused to resume play in protest of the accusation. Eventually, captain Inzamam-ul-Haq agreed to return to the pitch, but Hair and his fellow umpire had already formally awarded the match to England. Years of legal and administrative wrangling followed: the result was first changed to a draw before being reverted to an England win. Inzamam was cleared of all ball-tampering charges, but Hair received a lengthy ban from ICC officiating roles.
The 2010 Lord’s Test spot-fixing scandal saw three Pakistani cricketers jailed for corruption, in a sting orchestrated by now-defunct British tabloid the News of the World. Cricket agent Mazhar Majeed accepted a bribe from the newspaper’s undercover reporters, and agreed to arrange for bowlers to deliver deliberate no-balls at pre-arranged points in the match. Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and 17-year-old Mohammad Amir carried out the plot, and the News of the World broke the story while the Test was still in progress. All three received lifetime bans from international cricket, and were convicted of conspiracy to cheat at gambling and accepting corrupt payments. Butt was sentenced to 30 months in prison, Asif to 12 months, and Amir to six months in youth detention. Amir has since returned to international cricket after his ban was lifted, but the scandal remains one of the most damaging examples of corruption in modern sport.
Most recently, and the incident that prompted the TMS poll, the 2018 sandpapergate scandal during Australia’s tour of South Africa saw the Australian cricket establishment rocked by revelations of systemic ball-tampering. During the third Test, television cameras caught Australian fielder Cameron Bancroft rubbing the match ball with a small yellow object. Bancroft and captain Steve Smith initially admitted to attempting to alter the ball’s condition, and days later it was revealed the object was sandpaper. The scandal sparked national outcry in Australia, with then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying he was “bitterly disappointed” by the team’s behavior. Smith and vice-captain David Warner, who was identified as the mastermind of the scheme, were stripped of their leadership roles and banned from international and domestic cricket for a year, while Bancroft received a shorter ban. Head coach Darren Lehmann was cleared of any involvement but resigned from his position anyway, taking ultimate responsibility for the team’s culture.
