Allan Border, a legend of Australian cricket, has supported David Warner and asked Cricket Australia (CA) to overturn the lifetime leadership ban placed on the 35-year-old player as a result of his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal during the away series against South Africa in 2018.
Following the incident, which became known as the "sandpaper-gate scandal," three Australia cricketers — the then-skipper Steve Smith, his deputy Warner, and Cameron Bancroft — were banned from playing in both domestic and international competitions for varying amounts of time, not to exceed a year.
The incident that occurred during the Cape Town Test in 2018 not only led to the CA banning the trio, but it also resulted in a two-year leadership role penalty for Smith and a lifetime leadership ban for Warner.
Warner has led the squad to success in multiple campaigns, including Australia's first title win at the ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE last year, since he returned to the team after serving the suspension. Additionally, he has been acting perfectly, leading several current and past cricketers, including Test skipper Pat Cummins, to request that CA lift the veteran player's leadership ban.
Border stated in an interview with The West Australian on Monday that Warner's lifetime leadership ban ought to be immediately overturned because ball tampering is pervasive in cricket all around the world.
Border was quoted in the story as saying, "Let's move on; they've served their sentence; it was a harsh consequence in the first place. "I'm aware that every other side is acting just how we were exposed to be acting. The captains would be telling "porky pies" if they all laid their palm on their heart and said, "I wasn't doing anything similar" (lies).
"Given the awareness in the cricket fraternity where this has been occurring, the bans those boys received were a little excessive for the offence. They all had to alter the way they played cricket, Border added.
Border also suggested that "natural" ball tampering, as opposed to the use of sandpaper and metallic bottle tops, might be acceptable in cricket.
"Having the ability to reverse swing is a very powerful weapon. Even on the most uneven wickets, you can still dismiss a person. There is a school of thinking that says you shouldn't be able to touch the ball, but there is another one that says you should be able to if you get the ball in your hand and work on it over time until you can get the ball to reverse swing. What's wrong with that?
"It's not a bad notion because you need something on flat wickets, otherwise the scores just blow out, and that's what happens now when we start preparing result wickets, because it's extremely difficult to get excellent players out on very flat tracks," Border continued.