Bulls Shield talent could be heading overseas
FURIOUS Cricket Australia officials have warned they are likely to pull players out of the Sheffield Shield final to cover what could be a raft of Test match suspensions in South Africa following the tamper storm engulfing its players.
As Steve Smith and David Warner were last night stood down as captain and vice-captain for the rest of the third Test, Queensland have been told that they could lose players including Matt Renshaw or Joe Burns – maybe both – when the axe falls in South Africa in the next few days.
Smith will suffer the shame of being a current Test captain forced to serve under new skipper, keeper Tim Paine, for the rest of the Test, which Australia are all-but assured to lose.
Opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught tampering with the ball during the third day of play, and Smith subsequently confessed to orchestrating the cheating.
Queensland opener Renshaw made 37 and Burns 49 in on day three of the Shield final against Tasmania at Allan Border Field as Queensland managed 3-232 in response to Tasmania’s 477.
Bancroft, the man charged with attempting the low act, is believed to have accepted a one-Test ban which will rule him out of the fourth Test in Johannesburg starting on Friday and now places his future as a Test player under a dark cloud.
The most severe punishment option would appear to be suspending all members of the leadership group who, according to Smith, sanctioned the decision.
That would see Smith, Warner, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc banned in what would be a blow similar to the “Homeworkgate” scandal of 2013.