It IS the story that will not go away, the cricketing ‘-gate’ to beat all ‘-gates’. As Australia and South Africa wage war in Friday’s first Test at Durban, no one will be tampering with the ball. And yet you can be sure everyone is thinking about ball-tampering.Sandpapergate, the scandal that changed Australian cricket, was eight years ago, yet not until now have their Test team returned to South Africa. And try as they might to shake off the past, or to depict the fascination as a media beat-up, ghostly voices continue to emerge, ensuring the narrative remains front and centre.Back in 2021, three years after Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft received varying bans for their part in the plot to rough up the ball, the four main bowlers from that game at Cape Town – Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon – issued a statement in response to a newspaper interview in which Bancroft was asked whether the bowlers knew what was going on.He had replied: ‘Uh… yeah, look, I think, yeah, I think it’s pretty probably self-explanatory.’Their statement was unequivocal: ‘We pride ourselves on our honesty. We did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands… We respectfully request an end to the rumour-mongering and innuendo.’Fair enough. Except that, even now, some of their ex-colleagues feel less inclined to play ball. Usman Khawaja, recently retired, has spoken to Cummins and Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg about the contents of his new book, published next month, and specifically the chapter about Cape Town. Sandpapergate will be in sharp focus again when Australia play their Test series in South Africa The umpires speak with Australia’s Cameron Bancroft (right) who was among three of the tourists who plotted to rough up the cricket ball vs South Africa at Newlands in March 2018Since Khawaja believes the squad should have taken collective responsibility, it may not make for comfortable reading. Warner is said to be working on his own book, and has never departed from his stance that he took one for the team.And Jon Holland, who did not play in that series but was in the touring party, recently shone a light on the meeting that night at the hotel, when the players discussed ‘who was going to take the blame’. Holland added: ‘To be sitting there and seeing three blokes hung out to dry when you are supposed to be part of a team was a pretty hard watch.’A media beat-up? Not really: even those closely involved feel the matter was never properly resolved. And who will be leading Australia’s attack this time round but Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood?Which is not to say the media are not making the most of it. SuperSport – the South African broadcasters whose cameramen exposed the skulduggery – issued a tweet on Wednesday that read: ‘Our cameras will be sharp for this three-match Test series.’ Below was the incriminating footage from that day at Newlands.Central to the Australian bowlers’ protestations of innocence was Cricket Australia’s conclusion this was a one-off aberration concocted by three batsmen. Yet, as Daily Mail Sport revealed the day after the 2018 Cape Town Test finished, Warner confessed to England’s players in the post-Ashes drinks less than three months earlier that he had been using tape attached to his hand to tamper with the ball.On tour at the time in New Zealand, Stuart Broad suggested with an admirably straight face: ‘I saw Steve Smith in his press conference say it’s the first time they’ve tried it, which to me… it’s surprising why they’d change a method that’s been working.’Look at the Ashes series we’ve just played, all those Test matches, and they’ve reverse-swung the ball in conditions you wouldn’t expect it to. I don’t understand why they’ve changed their method for this one game.’Broad added he had seen no evidence the Australians were up to no good during that 2017-18 Ashes, but his observation spoke for many who found the official line too convenient for comfort. Steve Smith broke down in tears as he faced the Australia media following the incident. He would go on to lose the captaincy as a result of his actions Back in 2021, Pat Cummins and his fellow bowlers denied any involvement in Sandpapergate Some have argued that the bans handed out to Smith, Warner and Bancroft were part of a general over-reaction by the Australian authorities, and they have a point: ball-tampering has been part of cricket from the start.But it also spoke to a sense that Smith’s team had long since overstepped the ‘line’ they kept lecturing others about. They were now hypocrites, and the realisation back home caused all hell to break loose.Australia have become a more likeable team in the interim, while sacrificing none of the competitive drive that has made them, historically, cricket’s No 1 nation.Yet the renewed chatter about who knew what during the tour on which they lost their minds is confirmation that Sandpapergate will be forgiven more quickly than it is forgotten.’What’s left to come out after eight years?’ wondered Starc this week. Painful though it may be, the storyline remains tantalisingly beyond Australia’s control.