Cricket / Hazlewood pranked by Barmy Army with hidden text on autograph paper, pic goes viral

Cricket Desk: The Barmy Army has taken a funny jibe at Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood during the opening Ashes Test at The Gabba in Brisbane. The speedster was seen signing autographs near the boundary ropes. Earlier, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans weren’t allowed to make any sort of interaction with the cricketers, but the restrictions have been relaxed a wee bit in recent times.

On the fourth day of the game, a member of the Barmy Army took an autograph from Hazlewood. However, the right-arm paceman didn’t notice the hidden text at the bottom of the paper. “I Joshua ‘Joshie’ Hazlewood do solemnly swear that I knew it was sandpaper,” it read. Later, the official Twitter handle of the Barmy Army posted it on their official Twitter handle.

Back in March 2018, Hazlewood was a part of the infamous Test match where Steve Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner were handed bans after the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town. Bancroft, who served a nine-month ban, said that the Aussie bowlers had an idea about the entire saga.

“Yeah, obviously what I did benefits bowlers and the awareness around that, probably, is self-explanatory,” Bancroft told The Guardian. Warner and Smith were stripped off captaincy duties and were handed a one-year ban.

However, the Australian bowlers said that they didn’t have much idea about the incident. “We did not know a foreign substance was taken onto the field to alter the condition of the ball until we saw the images on the big screen at Newlands,” the statement read.

Back in 2018, Hazlewood said that he had not clue about the tampering scandal that sent Australian cricket into the doldrums.

“No, no. We obviously have ball maintenance people in the team, usually batsmen because they’re in the circle and the bowlers field fine leg, deep square — where ever it is. They just look after the ball from time to time. As soon as it stops swinging normal, then it starts to reverse swing.

“We pretty much get it (the ball) at the stop of our mark, one second before we start running in. So, we have a quick look, see which side’s a bit worn,” he said.