Australia will be touring South Africa for three ODIs and three Tests, starting September 24.
Steve Smith will be returning to South Africa for the first time after the infamous "Sandpapergate" ball-tampering scandal in 2018 that led to his one-year ban from international cricket. Smith revealed that he still gets anxious facing the media and around cameras, recalling traumatic experiences in the aftermath of the scandal.
Smith was the captain of the Australian team during the 2018 Test tour of South Africa, when Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball during the third Test in Cape Town eight years ago.
This has led to an investigation by Cricket Australia that banned captain Smith and vice-captain David Warner for one year each, while Cameron Bancroft was banned for eight months for their roles in the Sandpapergate scandal.
Smith, in preparation for the first Test match in Durban on October 9, before the tour moves to Gqeberha and Cape Town, revealed that he still suffers from flashbacks of an especially difficult period of his life.
This is because he is still disturbed by the memories of leaving Johannesburg airport with a barrage of flashes coming from the cameras and the painful press conference in Sydney where he was seen crying.
"I'm not a big fan of cameras ... I get anxious around cameras, to be honest. That was a traumatic experience in my life, and when I hear the flash of a camera, it makes me revisit that in a way.
The 24-48 hours of being told by James Sutherland (then-Cricket Australia chief executive) that I was getting banned for a year. That and going through the airport in Johannesburg getting absolutely mobbed, and then flying back and doing that press conference. I still have little flashbacks here and there of it,” Smith told News Corp. in an interview published Thursday.
Smith was one of the players who suffered the greatest effect of what is arguably the worst scandal in Australian sporting history, but he managed to bounce back in great form after that. He came back to play a fantastic hundred for Australia against England and has been playing well ever since, amassing 10,920 Test runs so far, averaging 56.
"It was certainly a difficult period, particularly the initial period a few days after. The mental state I was in was not great. That's somewhere I'd like not to get to again, but I certainly learned from that and have been able to move forward with my life. I've tried to kind of erase a lot of 2018 and what happened. I can't remember a lot about the series. I've tried to block most of it out of my memory bank,” Smith added.
Smith has played in South Africa for white-ball games since 2018, but this will be the first time he will be playing Test cricket and is bracing for the hostile crowds.
"It's something I'm kind of used to. I've copped a lot at times away from home at different venues across my career, and it's something that I take in my own stride. I use it as motivation to try and go out and do well and try and take a positive from it,” Smith added.
(AFP inputs)