In a personal recount, Chris Barrett, a cricket journalist for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, has detailed the tense atmosphere surrounding the Australian cricket team's 2018 tour of South Africa, culminating in the infamous ball-tampering scandal. Barrett writes that he received a USB stick delivered to his hotel room in Port Elizabeth, where the second Test was about to begin. The thumb drive contained previously unseen footage of an altercation between David Warner and South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock that had occurred in a stairwell during the first Test in Durban.
That clash, which had already been reported after earlier leaked footage appeared in South African media, was shown from a different angle on the USB stick, generating a fresh round of headlines. Barrett notes that the series was "already radioactive" before the events of the third Test in Cape Town, where Warner, Bancroft, and captain Steve Smith were sent home after attempting to tamper with the ball using sandpaper.
Barrett describes the days and weeks following the Newlands incident as chaotic, with the trio being sent home from the tour. The article offers a behind-the-scenes look at how journalists covering the series were drawn into the escalating controversies, beginning with the Warner-De Kock confrontation and culminating in one of the most infamous episodes in cricket history.