Whateley: "Under siege" the hostility of sandpapergate

In a pre-recorded reflection of the events of 2018, Gerard Whateley recounts the moment he found out about Sandpapergate, an Australia team under siege and the chaos that followed.

It was a Saturday night, and I must have flicked the TV off just before it happened.

I remember turning my phone on on Sunday morning and it nearly jumped off the bedside table – it just lit up with so many messages.

I went straight to broadcast to watch what had happened and then came the emergency call from Hutchy (Craig Hutchison) to get to the studio to do a show.

The national sense of anger and shame was palpable across those hours.

It was the opening round of the AFL season but we were so struck by what had happened in cricket that it became the immediate focus.

Reaction came from the PM down. I spoke to Simon Katich and Robert Craddock – they were my sounding boards along the way as we talked about how serious this was.

Kat was the first to say Smith would have to stand down and that they would all end up losing their jobs.

This was different to “under arm” but had the same vibes around it.

It was probably the most intense week I have ever worked back home; I was relatively new to SEN.

I had done the first two Tests in South Africa. I still have most of the emails that were sent that week. It was an overwhelming fire front.

It was all about what it means to be Australian, what we expect from our cricketers, the collective sense of anger and disapproval. It was such an intense week.

My other memory was that, having been in South Africa for the opening two Tests, from the moment we arrived there was an air of hostility around which was really confronting - and atypical with what cricket normally is.

It resulted in the stairwell bust-up in the first Test, the Rabada shoulder charge in the second, the awful behaviour of the crowd particularly towards Warner and his family. This was an Australian team under siege.

There was a breaking point that would identify, but not knowing how it would materialise.

Kagiso Rabada being cleared added to the sense of how wronged Australia was feeling. That was the mindset that went into it.

The Sandpaper moment; I remember watching it and thinking this is a national scandal that so rarely comes along and how keenly felt it would be by thew whole country.

Initially, people were determined to hold their jobs. They didn’t fully grasp the severity of what had happened and what the reaction had been.

That was the tyranny of distance; it was really clear in Australia the course of action that had to be enacted but that had been missed in South Africa.

Then there were the victims; those awful shots of Steve Smith being ushered through the airport and banished as if he was a criminal were terrible.

He wasn’t given the support he needed at that time and was left to fend for himself and then back home to do the press conference which was heart rending.

Scarring lasts in sport and that is true of sandpaper all the way through to now when some go back to confront the demons.

It’s one of the most extraordinary things we have ever seen in Australia.