Two years after the ball-tampering scandal, former England umpire Ian Gould has accused Australian cricketers of being "out of control" on the field even before the disgraceful row.

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Australian cricket was shaken to the core after cameras had caught Cameron Bancroft using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball at Newlands. Subsequently, then captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were given 12-month bans while Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension under Cricket Australia's Code of Conduct.

Gould, who retired from international cricket in 2019, was one of the on-field umpires during the episode and he recently recounted his memories.

"I didn't realise what the repercussions would be. If you look back on it now, Australia were out of control probably two years, maybe three years, before that, but not in this sense. Maybe - behavioural, chatty, being pretty average people," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"When the director said, 'He's put something down the front of his trousers,' I started giggling, because that didn't sound quite right. Obviously, what's come from it is for the betterment of Australian cricket - and cricket generally."

Ian Gould said when he received the message from television producers, he did not think of how much the scandal would affect Australian cricket.

The 62-year-old also revealed the sandpaper didn't get on the ball which he is in possession of at the moment.

"If you saw the balls, you would get it completely wrong. At the end of the day, the sandpaper didn't get on that ball. They were working to get the ball to be pristine. Once they'd got one side bigger and shinier, that's when the sandpaper was coming in," he said.