He didn’t hold back
The Australian cricket team have landed themselves in a very large pot of boiling hot water this week, after they were caught ball-tampering during the third Test of their four match series against South Africa.
Amid the chaos of the yellow-tape-gate, or sandpaper-gate as some are calling it, despite the fact that Cameron Bancroft used tape, accusations of hypocrisy have been flying around from all angles, and being the outspoken character that he is, Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff decided to join in.
Speaking on his BBC 5 Live Podcast Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy, which features himself, Robbie Savage and journalist Matthew Syed, he called out the Australian cricket team, accusing them of being the rules as much as possible for years.
“Australia  attempted a lot of times to be ‘poor us, we’re fine, we don’t cross the mark.’  But you do lads to be honest, you’ve done it for years and years and years and now you’re getting found out”, Flintoff said.
“I think it’s very thick… it’s embarrassing for the people involved… I think the debate is to what extent are you cheating. You’ve heard all sorts of stories about ball tampering … all these things have gone on over time and now is the time to draw a line. What we’ve seen is cheating, there’s no two ways about it”, he added.
Australia have a reputation for their brutal sledging, which Flintoff suggests comes from a misconceived superiority complex.
“The Australians have always been: ‘Oh, we’ll dish it out, but then people come back at us and we’ll whinge. Australians think they’re the best. They think that they’re strongest, they think they’re the best cricket team in the world. And to think: ‘Actually, we’ve had to cheat to beat South Africa, who aren’t that good.’ That is a massive kick in the nuts.“
The scandal has brought shame on Australia as a country, who pride themselves on their sporting glory and don’t take kindly to cheating.
Aussie captain Steve Smith is likely to be banned from international cricket for a year as a result. For the moment, he has been suspended for one Test and will miss the final match of the series in South Africa, which will be played in Johannesburg.
