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‘Not criminals’: The aussie act that shocked Proteas... and forgotten moment that paved way for chaos
‘Not criminals’: The aussie act that shocked Proteas... and forgotten moment that paved way for chaosSeptember 29th, 2026 7:32 am Dean Elgar, the South African star responsible for cricket’s most overshadowed century, signed off from the game on the weekend in Wales in typically hard-nosed and superb fashion.about a decorated career that included his stunning century in the infamous Sandpaper-gate Test, Elgar knuckled down to score a hard-fought hundred to save the game for Essex.
Watch Australia’s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Preceding his final County cricket match in Cardiff, Elgar told foxsports.com.au that he had always been taught the importance of putting a price on his wicket.
The longer and harder he fought to protect it, the better placed his team would be to succeed or, in the case of the last outing of his career, avoid defeat after Essex was forced to follow on in a match against Glamorgan, who he once represented.
“I think the biggest thing that stands out is the hunger for victory and since my school days, obviously you want to try to be the best version of a cricketer and obviously you get better as you get older but, for me, winning was always number one,” he said. “I guess the other characteristic that comes with being hungry, having the hunger to obviously time in, time out, to perform and to put the team on the highest pedestal as well, knowing that if you do well, the team more times than not is going to be in a good place.
“Obviously that is a mantra that I have lived by since my schooling years. I have lived that culture and maybe I created it in my own way, but I think a lot of cricketers share those thoughts - maybe they don’t say those words - but actions obviously speak a lot louder than that.
”Amid the life-changing furore that unfolded during Australia’s most recent Test tour of South Africa in 2018, Elgar saved his actions for the bat as others lost their minds around him in one of the most explosive series ever played. The 39-year-old, whose 108 in the second innings against Glamorgan took his tally of runs in first-class cricket to 19,362 at an average of 41.9, scored 14 hundreds for South Africa in an 86 match Test career that culminated in captaining his country between 2021 and 2024.
He played a pivotal role in the 2018 series against Australia, which will play its first Test in South Africa since that infamous tour of 2018 in a match beginning in Durban next Friday. Fans holding up a sign saying "Free Sandpaper" during day 4 of the 3rd Sunfoil Test match between South Africa and Australia at PPC Newlands on March 25, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa.
After his obstinate half-century swung the momentum South Africa’s way in Gqeberha , Elgar batted with great patience in a history-equalling effort. The left-handed opener joined West Indian star Desmond Hayes as the only cricketers to carry their bat three times in Test cricket when making an unbeaten 141 in Cape Town.
“It’s not my fault that 10 wickets fell around me. I just put a price on my wicket and I tried my arse off to give that away. I wasn’t the most natural flowing cricketer and beautiful on the eye. No-one is really going to pay to watch me play.
But for me, that was my job and I had to fill it. ” Had Elgar, who faced 284 balls as Pat Cummins helped the Aussies bowl the hosts out for 311, not frustrated the tourists with a gritty hundred that set the tone for the Test, the scandal may not have exploded.
“it just doesn’t get spoken about” noting that the furore that surrounded the entire series “snowballed and took away from the actual good cricket that was played, which is a bit sad. ” Reflecting on what unfolded eight years on from the scandal, Elgar said it provokes bittersweet memories and he still shakes his head at what unfolded on and off the field during the torrid series.
There is no better feeling in cricket than beating Australia, he said, which is an understandable sentiment for a man who began his Test career by making a pair in Perth in 2012. To claim what Australian great Ian Chappell branded an “unofficial world championship”, South Africa played brilliant cricket to reverse its fortunes after losing the first Test in Durban.
The image of Cameron Bancroft pocketing a piece of sandpaper with South African well in control in Cape Town caused a sensation around the world and embarrassed Australian cricket, with captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft paying a massive price. Warner and Smith were banned for a year, and Bancroft ousted for nine months, by Cricket Australia in what Elgar and many other cricketers believe was an immense over-reaction.
South African star AB de Villiers celebrates with Dean Elgar after the gritty opener made a century against Australia on the opening day of the Test remembered for the Sandpaper-gate scandal. Having faced Smith in the infancy of his career and played against Warner in under-19 cricket, he had known them for years and while they competed hard on the field, Elgar said he had nothing against the Australian champions.
“Cape Town, for me, it was extremely sad to see how everything just unfolded after that . They were not criminals in my eyes. It was just extremely badly managed,” he said.
“Again, it boiled down to culture. You’ll do anything to win. Find a way. Find a way.
maybe do it in a better manner. But at the end of the day, they made errors, but they are human beings as well. They didn’t commit a crime. Just to see them go through what they were going through was very sad and I think it was extremely unnecessary and it was quite bitter from an Australian handling point of view.
“And I might get a bit of flak for saying this, which is fine, because I’ve been getting flak through my whole career for saying things, which is also fine - that is a leader’s way, isn’t it, and unfortunately that how I am - but if I’m honest, just to see how the whole thing was handled back in Australia was extremely sad. “It actually took the whole sting out of the whole series and … it is almost like we shouldn’t have carried on playing that series.
”The explosive series against Australia aside, Elgar reflects on some of the high points and lower moments of an international career that extended 12 years in his chat withHe is proud to have bounced back from the adversity he experienced when knocked over twice by a rampaging Mitchell Johnson, who “put the fear of God … in a lot of batters”, at the WACA on his debut in 2012, noting South Africa won the Test and the series.
“I’m a person who is not going to look at my own performance and sulk about it. Even from a young age, I’d always try to find a way to become better and go through that experience all over again, knowing that we beat Australia in four days went on to win the series and to experience a series win at a pretty young age.
Mitchell Johnson, who could “put the fear of God” in batsmen. celebrates the wicket of Dean Elgar, who made a pair on debut against Australia at the WACA in 2012. “It was also my first taste of Test cricket … and I was like, ‘Shit.
This is something that’s quite cool’, but I was obviously severely out of my depth and I was very much made aware of that very quickly and obviously you have got to find a way to become better.
“In saying that, I think most guys would have shat themselves facing Mitch Johnson. He had just bullied England in the Ashes and now we were playing an away series against them and he was doing similar things to South Africa as well.
“But I was probably in the best classroom ever with the senior players that were around me … and being able to watch those guys go about their business and see what they were about and to emulate what they were doing and why they were so dominant in world cricket. “ I think if I was able to do half of what they had done, I would leave myself in good stead, which was great and it was a learning experience I had to respond to quickly because we had a Test series beginning the next month in South Africa.
”Elgar laments that he probably should have carried his bat four times, having “cocked up” when scoring 185 against India in the Boxing Day Test at Centurion in 2023, which proved the second last Test of his career. After scoring his first hundred in the third Test match of his career against New Zealand in Port Elizabeth just over a month after the baptism of fire against Australia, he carried on the fine tradition of tough, left-handed South African openers including Graeme Smith, Gary Kirsten and Kepler Wessels for well over a decade.
“I think I adapted very quickly to the harsh reality of being … totally out of your depth and you need to shape up or you’re going to be shipped out,” he said. “I was more than happy to do that because it was an environment that I tasted once and it is something that I wanted to keep tasting. I wanted to keep rubbing shoulders with the guys who were in the change room.
” Captaining his nation to an innings triumph over England at Lord’s in 2022 was a high point, but the finale of his Test career was tinged with sadness amid his disappointment as to the priority - or lack thereof - being placed in South Africa on Test cricket at the time. Similarly, his retirement from first class cricket is clearly not due to his form deserting him given his exploits on the weekend, but rather a desire to spend more time at home as a father to twins who are 18 months old.
“I would never have thought that having kids would have changed my whole thoughts and processes, but I am older now, and I am very much looking forward to having that new role now, being that leader at home, I guess, but also not knowing really what the hell you’re doing and being able to adapt into those situations. “It’s just about being at home for now and I need to be present there for my partner as well.
She’s carrying the can there by herself, so I need to I need to front up now. I’m going to go face another set of new balls. ”Elgar is looking forward to watching the three Test series to come, which will be screened exclusively on Kayo Sports and Fox Cricket, and believes the reigning World Test Champions deserve favouritism.
“There are still a lot of ‘umms’ and ‘ahhhs’ as to what team they’re going to put out and if the number one seamer is fit in Kagiso , if he is fit or not. “That would be a massive blow if he’s not fit because that guy gets out of bed to play against Australia. He gets so fired up and we saw that in 2018.
Having him in that team with that mentality is like having four players, which is awesome. Like I said, he gets out of bed for that.
“So if he is not available, someone is going to have to take over the reins with the ball, but I think South Africa playing at home as number one, you’re going to have to say they are favourites. And Australia’s batting line up isn’t the greatest at the moment.
“A few guys, maybe Heady and Steve Smith, a lot of pressure on their shoulders to carry the can there. But in saying that, it is also an opportunity for a lot of other Aussie batters to stand up and make a career out of this now. ”
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