Cricket Australia on Tuesday announced that its ongoing investigation had found three players, skipper Steve Smith, his deputy David Warner and Cameron Bancroft guilty of ball tampering during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town. Cricket Australia has also banned Smith and Warner for one year each.
Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday banned Smith and Warner from participating in the 11th edition of the IPL.
Earlier, speaking to media, Cricket Australia chief James Sutherland had said that in the short term, Smith, Warner and Bancroft had all been suspended for the final Test at The Wanderers and will head home on Wednesday.
The trio were found to have breached article 2.3.5 of the CA Code of Conduct, which, as Sutherland paraphrased, relates to “conduct at any time that is contrary to the spirit of the game, unbecoming of a representative, harmful to the interests of the game, or brings the game into disrepute.”
Tim Paine has been appointed the new captain for the Men’s cricket team. He will officially become Australia’s 46th Test captain when he arrives at the toss on Friday morning for the fourth Test match against South Africa. Matthew Renshaw, Joe Burns and allrounder Glenn Maxwell have been asked to reach South Africa within 24 hours to replace the three suspended players.
Sutherland said that the inquiry was not yet complete adding that only the three suspended players knew about the ball tampering plans. He said the coach, Darren Lehmann, will continue in his role as he was unaware of the cheating plan.
Cricket Australia had found themselves in a real spot of bother on Saturday after the visiting players were caught disgracing what’s essentially known as the gentlemen’s game in South Africa. The ugly scenes of blatant ball tampering by Australia’s Cameron Bancroft in Cape Town on Saturday sent shock-waves across the cricketing world. What followed next was even worse when the Australian skipper, Steve Smith, spectacularly confessed that the team management had decided to cheat by tampering with the ball in the third Test against South Africa in their desperation to win the match.
The video of Bancroft desperately trying to scuff up the cricket ball with a sand paper went viral. Bancroft’s dirty act was caught by TV camera and broadcast on the big screen installed in the stadium while the match was in play. Embarrassed by the public shaming, Bancroft was then seen hiding the sand paper inside his underwear.