Sandpaper gate: Michael Clarke 'not convinced' with Australian bowlers' clarification on ball-tampering sagaFormer Australian captain Michael Clarke is not convinced by the clarification made by the four Australian bowlers part of the 2018 Cape Town Test infamous for the ball-tampering incident. The four bowlers - Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon - came out with a joint statement clarifying of them not knowing about a foreign substance being brought on to the ground after the batsman Cameron Bancroft in an interview last week confirmed the presence of 'awareness elsewhere'.

However, Clarke was bemused by the missing of some key aspects and names in an otherwise 'smartly worded' statement. He pointed out that the statement didn't fins any mention of the protagonist Bancroft and the then bowling coach of the side David Saker.

"I knew when I made my comments about what Cameron Bancroft's quotes were it was more than likely going to offend certain people," Clarke said on 'Sky Sports' radio.

"It certainly was not done personally from my perspective, particularly with the four bowlers concerned, I'm good friends with all of them."

A couple of day ago, Clarke had said that he was certain that the bowlers had a role to play in the ball-tampering saga.

"I think there have been a number of people, past players, journalists who have made comments based on what Cameron Bancroft said and then what David Saker, the bowling coach, as well had said. I think that is what's really important after seeing the joint statement," Clarke said.

"The one thing that stands out for mine in that statement (is) they forgot how this conversation was brought up. It was comments from a teammate Cameron Bancroft who was involved in the situation and then quotes from David Saker who was the bowling coach at the time.

Source : DNA India