Ban for one year too harsh: Warne
SYDNEY: Shane Warne feels the punishment handed out to the Steve Smith and David Warner was a bit too harsh. “I am still trying to wrestle with what I think the punishment should be. They have to be harsh, but if they are rubbed out for a year, the punishment does not fit the crime,” Warne wrote in his column for The Herald Sun.
Warne said that the players’ embarrassing act called for a hefty fine but not a 12-month ban. “Let’s take the emotion out of it. We are all feeling angry and embarrassed. But you need a level head and you shouldn’t destroy someone unless they deserve to be destroyed.
“Their actions were indefendable and they need to be severely punished. But I don’t think a oneyear ban is the answer. My punishment would have been to miss the fourth Test, a huge fine, and be sacked as captain and vicecaptain. But they should still be allowed to play,” Warne wrote.
“The punishment is way too harsh but the crime committed on the field cannot be condoned,” he said.
“But the jump to hysteria is something that has elevated the offence beyond what they actu- ally did, and maybe we’re at a point where the punishment just might not fit the crime,” he said.
‘RECLAIM VALUES’
NEW DELHI: It will be difficult for Australia’s besmirched cricketers to reclaim their reputations when the dust settles on the balltampering scandal but the episode is nonetheless a chance for the team to reclaim its lost principles and values, feels former batsman Michael Hussey.
“I feel like we’ve lost sight of some of these principles in recent years... The next few months will be difficult. This period will also present the team with a chance to reset. Our values. Our team culture. Our true north...we played hard, certainly, but also positively and fairly,” Hussey wrote for ‘playersvoice.com.au’.