Smith, Warner face life ban for cheating
Skipper and his deputy risk maximum punishment under Cricket Australia’s code of behaviour
CAPETOWN: The ICC may have suspended Australia skipper Steve Smith for just one Test over the ball-tampering scandal, but it appears Cricket Australia may take a much stronger view of it.
According to a report in Espncricinfo, the Australian board may ban Smith and vicecaptain David Warner for life.
The report said CA’S head of integrity unit, Iain Roy, and team performance manager Pat Howard have travelled to Cape Town to begin an investigation after CA was asked by the Australian Sports Commission to strip Smith and Warner of captaincy and vice-captaincy for the remainder of the third Test that ended in Australia’s 322-run defeat.
NOT ALL INVOLVED?
While Smith admitted on Saturday that the team’s ‘leadership group’ was behind the decision to indulge in ball-tampering, it was learnt the entire leadership, which also included Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, was not involved. This has put the focus purely on Smith and Warner.
The ICC suspended Smith for one Test and fined him his entire match fee. It fined Cameron Bancroft – the player caught trying to tamper with the ball on Saturday -- 75% of his match fee while letting off Warner.
Earlier, CA chief executive James Sutherland had issued a public apology, saying “To our Australian fans, we are sorry. We are sorry that you had to wake up this morning to news from South Africa that our Australian men’s cricket team and our captain admitted to conduct that is outside both the laws of our game and the Spirit of Cricket. This behaviour calls into question the integrity of the team and CA.”
PRESSURE ON CA
The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had lashed out at the team saying, “How can our team be engaged in cheating like this? It beggars belief. Our cricketers are role models and cricket is synonymous with fair play.”
Turnbull said he expected the cricket bosses to take “decisive action soon”.
The Australian Sports Commission, a government statutory agency overseeing sports, has taken a strong view and pushed CA to suspend players. It issued a statement on Sunday, saying “The ASC condemns cheating of any form in sport. The ASC expects and requires that Australian teams and athletes demonstrate unimpeachable integrity in representing our country.
“The cricketers are iconic representatives of our country. The example they set matters a great deal to Australia and to the thousands of young Australians playing or enjoying the sport of cricket and who look up to the national team as role models.” Steve Smith set off a controversy in the second Test of the four-match series in India a year ago when he looked to his dressing room for help while deciding whether to call for Decision Review System — describing the moment a “brain fade”.
India captain Virat Kohli accused the visitors of routinely abusing the decision review system, stopping just short of calling Smith a cheat.