Travis Head has revealed that the fallout from Australia’s 2018 ball-tampering scandal influenced a defining moment early in his captaincy of South Australia, when he shut down a dressing-room discussion about whether the team should tamper with the ball to aid reverse swing.
Head was 24 at the time and on the cusp of becoming a regular in the Australian side. The Newlands scandal had resulted in Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft receiving lengthy suspensions, while Australian cricket was still dealing with the damage to its reputation.
South Australia, meanwhile, had endured five successive seasons at the bottom of the Sheffield Shield table. Against that backdrop, some players reportedly wondered whether the team needed to be more aggressive in preparing the ball, amid suspicions that opponents were still pushing the boundaries.
Head, then South Australia’s captain, made his position clear.
“I made a pretty strong stand at that point,” Head told The Age in Durban. “I just knew what a couple of close friends had gone through, and knew what the [Australian] team had gone through, and the flow-on effect of that.”
For Head, the issue was bigger than results. South Australia could remain at the bottom of the table, he said, but it had to play the game properly.
That attitude has carried into the current Australian team, according to Head. He believes Pat Cummins has helped create an environment in which players are encouraged to treat Test cricket as a game rather than a matter of life and death.
“If South Africa play really, really well, and we lose 3-0, that’s OK; it’s not the end of the world,” Head said.
He also believes Australia benefits from refusing to become consumed by the intense scrutiny surrounding modern Test cricket.
“The storylines of media now is through the roof,” Head said. “So if you can’t enjoy it within the four walls, then you’re never going to.”
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Published on Oct 07, 2026
