12-month bans for Smith, Warner

Steve Smith and David Warner have been suspended by Cricket Australia for 12 months and Cameron Bancroft for nine months over the ball tampering scandal in South Africa.

CA chief executive James Sutherland met with the players in their hotel in the city’s Sandton district yesterday to tell them their fate before they flew out of the country back to Australia.

Smith broke the news to his team-mates soon after he was handed his penalty. He has been stripped of the Australian captaincy, which is being taken over by Tim Paine on a fulltime basis.

The trio have been embroiled in a scandal after Bancroft used yellow tape to alter the condition of the ball on the third day of the third test between the two nations. All three were stood down from the fourth test, which starts in Johannesburg tomorrow.

The level of the sanctions means that Smith and Warner are completely ruled out until after the next Australian home summer, paying a heavy price for their illfated decision to bring a foreign object onto the ground to try and alter the condition of the ball during the third test against South Africa.

Players were visibly shaken after learning their captain would be jettisoned for an entire year.

Smith and Paine embraced in the team hotel and moments later Smith left, dragging a suitcase behind him. The players have been banned from all elite Australian cricket for 12 months, although they can play grade (club) cricket.

Bancroft, meanwhile, received a slightly lesser punishment. He will sit out nine months after being the player who used yellow tape to work the ball before being caught out hiding it down his pants.

However, given he was only a new member of the team, the long absence from the side could have a major effect on his Test future.

Warner will play in the IPL to fulfil his $2.6 million contract, but has stepped down as captain of the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Smith was expected to give up his $2.6m contract with the Rajasthan Royals.