When the ball-tampering scandal hit the Australian cricket team at Newlands during the third Test match against South Africa, the team spirit was put into question with reports of infighting becoming a regular feature.
Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc who was part of Test and took a wicket in each of the innings has broken the silence on the matter and made it clear that he was angry about the comments his teammates had made.
Starc isn’t very happy with the comments made during the first press conference where former captain Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft were present.
The left-arm pacer slammed the "the group who decided to go into a press conference" for "not telling the whole truth" that "affected other reputations".
Both Smith and Bancroft fronted the media after they were caught by TV cameras in playing their part in the ball-tampering saga. In the press conference at the end of the day’s play, Smith said that the decision to do what they did to the ball was made by "leadership group".
"Going back to what Sue (corporate adviser Sue Cato) said before about being upfront and tackling a problem head on, that's something the group who decided to go into a press conference didn't really think about," The Australian quoted Starc at a public forum in Sydney.
"They obviously didn't see how big the reaction was going to be at that time and then went down the path of not telling the whole truth and then I guess involving another group, which ruined -- well, not ruined -- but affected other reputations."
The comments led to a lot of speculation in the media with many reports claiming that senior bowlers like Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon were part of "leadership group" that Smith was spoke of.
However, Starc, like Hazlewood denied any knowledge of the plot.
After the incident, Steve Smith and David Warner stepped down from their leadership roles and were handed 12 month bans from international and domestic cricket by Cricket Australia, while Cameron Bancroft was given a nine month sentence.
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