Notes on a scandal: Lemon and Haigh on Australian cricket’s ‘Sandpapergate’

In 2018, a young Australian cricketer named Cameron Bancroft was caught on television broadcast shoving what would later emerge to be sandpaper down his white trousers. It was the start of a frenzied public and media storm that culminated in the suspension of three players, the resignation of the head coach, and commissioned reviews into the sport’s national peak body. Later that year, two long-form books were published: Gideon Haigh’s Crossing the line: how Australian cricket lost its way and Geoff Lemon’s Steve Smith’s Men: behind Australian cricket’s downfall. This chapter examines these two texts as examples of cricket writing—considering the authors’ approach; their writing styles; and the thematic interpretations they present. Haigh’s is a comprehensive chronology, supported by a rigorous analysis of secondary data, whereas Lemon’s close position as a travelling journalist with the team allows him to represent himself within his book. While Lemon’s work is more character driven, both are equally damning of the systemic problems embedded within Cricket Australia. As cricket texts, they reveal the power of long-form work and techniques that make meaning from an intense, unwieldly moment in Australian men’s cricket.