Smith, Warner banned
CAPE TOWN. — Australian cricket skipper Steve Smith and opener David Warner have been banned for 12 months for their roles in the ball-tampering scandal that rocked the third Test against South Africa at Newlands last weekend.
Warner’s fellow opener, Cameron Bancroft, has been banned for nine months for his role in attempting to alter the state of the ball in the Proteas’ second innings.
All three players will have the right to challenge their verdicts and also the duration of their penalties via a CA code of behaviour hearing with an independent commissioner.
In addition, both Smith and Warner have been barred from captaining Australia for a period of two years.
The trio have been banned from all cricket except grade, or club, level in Australia and are also barred from the hugely successful - and lucrative - Big Bash League. They are permitted however to take part in the IPL and accept an English county role, if offered.
The lengthy bans meted out to Smith, Warner and Bancroft yesterday rule them out of an end-of-year series against topranked India that could rival the intensity of their scandal-ridden tour to South Africa.
Smith and Warner will not be available for Australia until April next year, while Bancroft’s nine-month ban will last until early 2019.
The next 12 months will continue a busy list of commitments for Australia, according to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) future tours programme, not least a mouth-watering match-up with India, including the traditional Boxing Day test in Melbourne and equally well-attended New Year’s affair in Sydney.
The match-up of Smith’s captaincy and batting acumen against that of Indian skipper Virat Kohli is now lost in the wake of the punishment for the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.
It should have some diminishing effect on a series that will still be vital to India’s status as the top ranked test-playing nation and the growing belief this generation is the best test side the country has yet produced.
But Indian touring teams have traditionally struggled Down Under and any claims India have to being the best would be severely tested on the Australian wickets.
Their ban also ruled out participation for the pair in this year’s Indian Premier League but minutes before the Australian sanctions were handed down, the IPL announced neither would be welcome this year.
Matches to be missed by Smith and Warner (Bancroft free to play from January 2019 tour of Australia by Sri Lanka): June 2018 - 5 ODIs, 1 T20I v England (away) June/July 2018 - 1 Test, 3 ODIs v Zimbabwe (away) August/September 2018 - 2 Tests, 3 ODIs v Bangladesh (home) October 2018 - 5 ODIs, 1 T20I v Pakistan (away) October/November 2018 - 5 ODIs, 3 T20Is v South Africa (home) November 2018/January 2019 - 4 Tests (India) January 2019 - 2 Tests, 3 ODIs v Sri Lanka (home) February 2019 - 5 ODIs, 2 T20Is v India (away) March 2019 - 3 Tests v Pakistan (away).