Tensions rise over ball-tampering bans
Cricket Australia’s plan this week to deliberate on reducing the suspensions handed to three players over their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal threatens to inflame relations with the players’ association.
The CA board will convene via a phone hook-up early this week to debate whether the bans of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft should be cut.
This comes after the Australian Cricketers’ Association had lodged a submission calling for a rethink in the wake of the Longstaff review, which the ACA says provided new and compelling evidence that CA – and not just the players involved – contributed to the atmosphere that prompted the events of the Cape Town test in March.
ACA chiefs Al Nicholson and Greg Dyer and their board had planned to meet the CA board to discuss their submission before a call was made.
This could have been worked into a meeting urged in the Longstaff report to occur within 30 days of the public lodging of the report, in a bid to begin a healing process between the two bodies after an ugly two years featuring a pay war and friction over the culture of the sport.
However, that meeting won’t be held for another week, with the CA board to convene in the meantime to determine a range of options around the year-long bans of Smith and Warner, and the nine-month ban handed to Bancroft.
It’s understood the players’ association still hopes to speak at least by phone to CA before the board meets but that appears unlikely.
CA will otherwise inform the ACA, most likely by phone, of its verdict before it is made public.
There are those in cricket circles who see the handling of this issue as a test case for how the two parties plan to rehabilitate their relationship.
The CA directors could opt to reject calls for the bans to be lifted or they could consider at least allowing the three men to return early to first-class cricket and play for their states.
Bancroft is due back on December 29, when he technically could be in line for test selection, so an immediate easing of that sanction would allow him to have vital game time before Christmas.