Tearful Smith garners sympathy all around
THIS WAS BALL-TAMPERING, NOT MURDER, LONDON’S THE TIMES WROTE
Awave of sympathy for disgraced Australia skipper Steve Smith gathered pace on Friday after his heartwrenching apology and as opposition grew to the severity of bans handed out in a ball-tampering scandal.
Smith’s tearful appearance in front of media helped trigger the resignation of coach Darren Lehmann and also prompted calls to rein in criticism which has verged on hysterical during an extraordinary week for Australian cricket.
Both Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for 12 months and Cameron Bancroft for nine months for balltampering during the third Test in Cape Town.
Lehmann — who had earlier warned about the players’ mental state — said he was convinced him to step down by the emotional apologies of Bancroft and Smith, which also drew messages of support.
“Dear Australia, that’s enough now,” ran a headline in British newspaper The Times. “This was ball-tampering, not murder.”
Australia’s leg spin great Shane Warne wrote in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph: “We are all so hurt and angry and maybe we weren’t so sure how to react. We’d just never seen it before.
“But the jump to hysteria is something that has elevated the offence beyond what they actually did, and maybe we’re at a point where the punishment just might not fit the crime.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan said Smith and Bancroft, who also faced media on Thursday, were “decent guys who had a moment of madness”.
The Australian Cricketers’ Association voiced concern over the welfare of the players, and argued that the sanctions were disproportionate compared to other sanctions for ball-tampering.
Warner, a divisive figure who was charged with instructing Bancroft, one of the team’s junior members, to tamper with the ball using sandpaper, will face the media today. Pressure also remains on CA, which has been hit by an exodus of sponsors over the damaging saga and uncertainty surrounding current broadcast rights negotiations.
CA’s losses include an estimated Aus$20 million (US$15 million) partnership with naming rights sponsor Magellan, which tore up its threeyear contract after barely seven months.
Meanwhile, a match referee warned of Smith and Warner “being involved in a ball-tampering incident” in the domestic Sheffield Shield in 2016, a media report said.
Not engaging in fair play
Daryl Harper said the pair were not engaging in fair play while representing New South Wales in a match against Victoria in November 2016, according to an email he sent to Cricket Australia’s match referee and umpire selection manager Simon Taufel, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. “When David Warner repeatedly bounced his returns in to (NSW wicketkeeper) Peter Nevill on the first day, the umpires appealed to Smith to support their calls for fair play,” the former Australian Test umpire reportedly wrote in the email.