ACA steps up bans fight

CRICKET Australia is unlikely to reopen its investigation into the ball- tampering scandal, despite a call from the players’ union for the bans on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft to be lifted immediately.

In the wake of the damning Longstaff review, the Australian Cricketers’ Association has vowed to be “relentless” in its pursuit of getting the trio back on the field as soon as possible. The ACA believes the review provided “independent verification that CA’s system and culture were contributing factors” to the Cape Town incident. The players’ body believes the report’s findings represented “significant matters” that were not considered at the time the sanctions were handed down in April.

“Yes, this moment of madness was ‘ individual’ but now there is evidence and independent verification of system failure as well,” ACA president Greg Dyer said. “This is hugely significant. With this new information, common sense, common decency, basic fair- ness, proportionality and natural justice demand that the punishment is reduced. Let them play.”

The push was instigated by the players’ association, not the banned players, and will begin with a submission to the CA board, which has agreed to a meeting within 48 hours.

CA chairman David Peever and new chief executive Kevin Roberts recently said the bans would not be lifted. But the ACA believes it’s within the board’s power to lift them and hasn’t ruled out taking the matter further should its request fall on deaf ears. “We’re not saying what they ( the players) did was right, and they’re contrite about that,” ACA chief executive Alistair Nicholson said. “But we believe the focus should be that the sanctions were handed down without the understanding of the climate and culture that the team were involved in. This is now a real factor — that what happened in Newlands was contributed ( to) by the culture of the whole organisation. What we’re saying is their sentences, with new evidence, needs to now be recalibrated and reviewed. It’s natural justice, which now needs to happen.”