India tour: CA boss hints at lifting Smith, Warner bans
MELBOURNE: Cricket Australia (CA) is considering a demand by the players’ union that ball-tampering bans on former captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft be lifted immediately, the governing body’s CEO Kevin Roberts said on Wednesday.
CA has come under pressure from the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) to end the bans following the release of the Longstaff review, which laid some of the blame for the Cape Town scandal at the door of the board. “The ACA submission around the players’ sanctions was received by the board a few days ago,” Roberts told reporters.
“It was addressed to the board rather than to me or all management. So not for me to comment on a board matter other than to say that the board will be respecting that submission and giving it due consideration.”
Smith and vice-captain Warner were each suspended for 12 months after the ball-tampering scandal broke in March, while opening batsman Bancroft was banned for nine months.
A depleted Australia have struggled to recover from the crisis, with the Test team losing two of their last three matches since Tim Paine took over the captaincy in South Africa.
The ODI team, now led by Aaron Finch, have lost their last seven including a 5-0 whitewash by England and a stinging defeat in Sunday’s series-opener against South Africa in Perth.
Meanwhile, Usman Khawaja’s comeback from surgery on his knee is ahead of schedule with the opener on Thursday confident of being ready for the first Test against India next month. The experienced left-hander, who hit a hundred to help Australia scramble to a draw in the first Test against Pakistan last month, has been out of action since the second Test of that series.