CRICKET IN CRISIS: SMITH AND WARNER STEP DOWN
Smith and Warner stand down as Australian cricket hit for six by tampering scandal
AUSTRALIAN captain Steve Smith was last night fighting for his cricket career as he stood down from his position on a disastrous day for cricket after cheating admissions plunged the sport into crisis.
Smith and vice- captain David Warner took the decision to remove themselves from their roles after a day of fiery condemnation from all sides, a flurry of calls for the captain to be sacked and crisis talks with Cricket Australia ( CA) officials.
The pair, along with coach Darren Lehmann, could all be dumped full- time as soon as tomorrow after CA launched an investigation into the shameful ball- tampering incident, which even elicited condemnation from the Prime Minister.
Having failed to talk to Smith ( inset, on the pitch yesterday) in the immediate aftermath of the revelations, CA boss James Sutherland reached out to the captain before play and it was decided both Smith and Warner should stand down, for this match, in the interests of the game.
Wicketkeeper Tim Paine was elevated to the top job but Smith and Warner were forced to take the field in Cape Town and play out the third Test.
As the fallout from the scandal continued, former players called for Smith to be sacked after he admitted telling teammate Cameron Bancroft to tamper with the ball during day three of the third Test as what has already been a tumultuous series erupted into further acrimony.
Malcolm Turnbull called it “a shocking disappointment” and made his position clear in a call to CA chairman David Peever that decisive action was needed. “How can our team be engaged in cheating like this? It beggars belief,” Mr Turnbull said. “It’s wrong and I look forward to Cricket Australia taking decisive action soon.”
A distraught Mr Sutherland called it a “sad day for cricket”.
He dispatched CA’s head of integrity Iain Roy and high- performance manager Pat Howard to South Africa to investigate the actions of the Australian skipper and the team leadership, including Lehmann.
Despite overwhelming video evidence catching Bancroft with a yellow piece of tape in his hand, which he used to pick up debris from the pitch and then rub on the ball, plus Smith’s admission he came up with the plan, Mr Sutherland refused to impose immediate sanctions, which was within his power. He contacted Australian team manager Gavin Dovey in Cape Town after he was made aware of the incident early on Sunday morning. Instead Mr Sutherland, amid a public outcry for Smith to be sacked and similar calls from
former players including Adam Gilchrist and Simon Katich, said CA would not move until the investigation was completed.
That should be done as soon as tomorrow morning, after which Mr Sutherland and the board can act.
“We are extremely disappointed and shocked at what we woke up to this morning, and we are dealing with this issue with the utmost urgency and seriousness,” he said.
Smith said he and his leadership team, which includes vice- captain David Warner and usually extends to bowlers Nathan Lyon, Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood, came up with the plan out of “desperation”.
More than 90 per cent of 25,000 voters in a Daily Telegraph poll called for Smith to be sacked. That call was echoed by a host of Aussie greats, who said the decision by Smith to come up with the plan, then go through with it, made his position untenable.
“It’s premeditated cheating, it’s blatant, it’s disgraceful, not accepted by anyone,” former captain Michael Clarke told Channel 9.
“If they are going to make a tough stand on Steve Smith and everyone that is involved in this, no way can one of those players captain Australia.”
Bancroft was charged by the ICC, but his penalty won’t include a playing ban.
CA could, however, come over the top and impose its own sanction, along with any penalty for Smith, Lehmann and others found to have been involved.
Bancroft has also been implicated in previous unsavoury incidents on the pitch. He was seen sliding what looked like sugar into his pocket during a break in play at the Ashes. But it was dismissed at the time as nobody seemed to care much.
Cricketers have been using mints and sugar to polish the ball for a long time. When Faf du Plessis got caught going it in Hobart last summer his excuse was that everybody did it — and Smith appeared to support him.