Cape Town trio bans stay
A FAILED push to soften the Cape Town trio’s bans is officially over, having ended amicably as Australian cricket’s warring parties start to smoke the peace pipe.
Cricket Australia and the players’ union have agreed to disagree after the governing body refused to soften any aspect of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Ban- croft’s lengthy punishments.
CA’s seven-person board decided unanimously the terms and length of the suspensions, issued in response to the Cape Town cheating scandal, would not change.
The board studied a formal submission from the Australian Cricketers’ Association, lodged soon after an independent report suggested CA should shoulder some responsibility for the sandpaper scandal.
The verdict, before being made public, was relayed during a phone call from CA’s interim chairman, Earl Eddings, to ACA president Greg Dyer.
Dyer, having declared three weeks ago his organisation would be “relentless” in its bid to alter the bans, agreed to draw a line under the matter.
Their actions do not seem much on the surface but the contrast to last year’s bitter pay dispute, when relations hit an all-time low, could not be more frank.
There is renewed hope in cricketing circles the governing body and players’ union will rebuild their relationship, as per The Ethics Centre’s most urgent recommendation.
The next hurdle will be a circuit-breaker meeting early next week between representatives from CA’s board and the ACA executive.
It will be a chance to air grievances and establish how they best work together to rebuild Australian cricket after a stack of off-field crises and onfield capitulations to have followed the nightmare at Newlands.
But the fate of Smith and Warner, sacked as captain and vice-captain while given a 12month ban for their roles in the ball-tampering saga, and Bancroft, whose nine-month ban expires on December 29, will not be on the agenda.
The players’ union described the decision as “disappointing” in a statement but accepted the ruling from CA’s new-look board that is yet to replace directors David Peever and Mark Taylor.
Aaron Finch, a member of ACA’s executive preparing to captain Australia in tonight’s Twenty20 opener against India, vowed it was time to “move on”.
“It would’ve been great to see the guys (Smith and Warner) playing some domestic cricket in the back half of the season but we’ve got to respect CA’s decision,” Finch said.