NFR Smith and Warner banned

[sunburywhite]

Captain Steve Smith and vice-skipper David Warner have been banned for a year by Cricket Australia over their recent ball-tampering in South Africa.

Cameron Bancroft, who carried out the cheating, was given a nine-month ban.

Smith, 28, and Bancroft, 25, have also been suspended from captaining Australia for at least the next two years.

Warner, 31, will not be considered for "any team leadership positions in the future", Cricket Australia said.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/43565737

[Milo]

I think I read Smith was indirectly involved and it was the other two instigating it. He just knowingly turned a "blind eye".

Nonetheless pretty shocking really.

I am surprised Bancroft was treated so lightly actually. Again I read it was him who suggested the whole thing.

[Milo]

Ps bit of a laugh watching him panic on the TV and stuff it down his trousers.

Did anyone else think it was a strange reaction by the player on their "bench" to start laughing when they got a radio call that it was visible on TV.

[filham]

Tough punishment . Can anyone remember the punishment that Mike Atherton, the England captain, got for the same offence.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Not tough enough in my opinion. But the suffering they will endure of their reputations being dragged into the mud, the loss of Sponsorship which will effect their sky rockets will go some way towards making up for it.
Plus the worst is yet to come if they turn up in England.

[Mokes]

As an Australian, I'm happy to see them fall for it as it does shame the nation in the sporting world. I honestly haven't had any pride in our cricket team since Gilly and McGrath retired. In saying that the punishment does seem a bit harsh in comparison when you look back over the previous incidents.

-Mike Atherton had a pocket full of sand that he was using to rub on the ball in the mid 90's and he copped a £2000 fine.
-Shahid Afridi went all Luis Suarez on the ball in 2010 and got 2 games
-Rahul Dravid and Faf DuPlessis got caught rubbing throat lozenges on the ball and received a % of their match fee fine.
-Broad got caught stepping on the ball with his spikes, but it was deemed not worth looking into as England lost the game so badly it didn't matter

After he retired Trescothick admitted that they used to actually use trial and error to determine which kind of lollies/sweets produced the best kind of saliva to give the ball the best swing. Turns out it's Murrays Mints. So it's obviously something that is pretty rampant throughout the sport.

To have a player suspended for 9 months and 2 players given 12 months for a premeditated plan to rub sticky tape on a ball. Is actually pretty ridiculous.

Haha to bring it back to football, Roy Keane, after admitting to the fact that he had a premeditated plan to end another players career and possibly ability to walk again, with the attitude of "love him, I'd do it again" Received an additional 5 game ban and a couple of weeks wages...

I think that maybe Cricket Australia is just super embarrassed about the whole thing and is trying to salvage something of Australias image. I doubt the ICC would have been as heavy handed.

[Mokes]

Tough punishment . Can anyone remember the punishment that Mike Atherton, the England captain, got for the same offence.

a £2000 fine..

[Slaphead in Qatar]

i think the sentences given to the aussies were not harsh enough. pakistan players bowled a few no balls to make financial gain, and they were banned for 5 years.

[toshes mate]

Cricket Australia have confirmed sandpaper was used and not just 'sticky tape'.   

[Carborundum]

All three will have the opportunity to devote themselves to a full season of English county cricket.  Should put some backsides on seats, in a sort of bear-baiting kind of way.  Wonder if it will happen.  Bancroft has previously signed for Somerset, who are monitoring the situation.  The other two, well they aren't going to have much fun in Australia for a while.

[toshes mate]

Smith and Warner will not be having much fun in India either both banned from the IPL.

[King_Crud]

I honestly haven't had any pride in our cricket team since Gilly and McGrath retired.

McGrath was a p**** as well

[sunburywhite]

All credit to Cricket Australia, by ramping up the bans I think they have put some price back into Australian cricket

They could easily have ducked the issue

Wish other spoorting bodies had half as much backbone

[Mokes]

I honestly haven't had any pride in our cricket team since Gilly and McGrath retired.

McGrath was a p**** as well

Haha there might of been some banter back then with McGrath but he was hardly the kind of douche bag that Mitch Johnson or David Warner are. McGrath was always a decent guy and has kept it up post cricket with all his pink test charity stuff he has done since retiring.

Now days the Australian Cricket team is looked at pretty much the same way Australias Tennis players are. Talented idiots that we're supposed to support for no other reason than blind Patriotism. 

[Mokes]

Cricket Australia have confirmed sandpaper was used and not just 'sticky tape'.   

Well that's a new development. It had been reported as sticky tape everywhere up until just recently. Compared to Atherton rubbing sand on the ball that he had in his pocket, then lying to the umpires and saying that it was only there for him to dry his fingers on. I wouldn't say that the two offences warrant a difference of a £2000 fine for one situation and 3 lengthy suspensions for the other..

[Snibbo]

McGrath was quite a nasty sledger. Warne failed a drug test didn't he and blamed his mum. Standards have kept getting lower since then and its not just the aussies.  The ICC has been piss-weak. Cricket turned into a money making machine with more and more meaningless matches,  and multi million dollar sponsorship. I lost interest in these overpaid bogans years ago.  None of this surprises me

[toshes mate]

Cricket Australia have confirmed sandpaper was used and not just 'sticky tape'.   

Well that's a new development. It had been reported as sticky tape everywhere up until just recently. Compared to Atherton rubbing sand on the ball that he had in his pocket, then lying to the umpires and saying that it was only there for him to dry his fingers on. I wouldn't say that the two offences warrant a difference of a £2000 fine for one situation and 3 lengthy suspensions for the other..

Whilst I do not believe it is trivialising to compare the current controversy with Atherton's 'dry dirt' in his pocket with which he claimed he was 'trying to maintain the condition of the ball' when it comes to the matter of cheating, obviously using sandpaper to roughen up one side of the ball and sticky tape to remove the evidence of tampering is, if anything, degrees more daring and dastardly. 

Both incidents involved deception - Atherton tried to hide what he was doing, and so did Bancroft and company - and it is that which taints the people concerned.  If we are to punish anything in order to eradicate it then I must agree it is the deceit which is the truly harmful element.   Perhaps we should reflect that if the 'Atherton incident' had been properly dealt with then Bancroft and company would not have been so easily led.  Cheating needs to have no hiding place or place of redemption and cricket should have been much more earnest in its pursuit of sporting honesty a very long time ago.   Is it too late?   Not if punishments truly reflect the seriousness of the crime and are no longer arbitrary.

[toshes mate]

McGrath was quite a nasty sledger. Warne failed a drug test didn't he and blamed his mum. Standards have kept getting lower since then and its not just the aussies.  The ICC has been piss-weak. Cricket turned into a money making machine with more and more meaningless matches,  and multi million dollar sponsorship. I lost interest in these overpaid bogans years ago.  None of this surprises me

A million times worthy of repeating to all involved in controlling all sport.

[Favershampaul]

The ICB issued a one match ban, cricket Australia have dealt with it internally. The punishment
Handed out is they believe is appropriate as it's brought The Australian sporting ethics in to disrepute
The huge TV sponsorship also may have influenced the decision.
Tampering with the ball has been going on for years, a Murray mint is more discreet but is changing the condition of the ball. Let the Australians deal with it whilst we pontificate. don't think for a minute
This will stop it .
The year long ban is for letting the nation down. This might change the game in the future but I doubt it. They were cought tampering with the ball. An almighty cock up that is embarrassing for the proud Australian nation.
The ECB should keep out of this if however any of these players are signed up to play county cricket
Then big decisions will have to be made By the county's.

[Woolly Mammoth]

The whole issue leaves a Stench in the nostrils of the honest man.
But what has compounded and magnified this transgression of the rules of fair play. Is because it was committed by a country, and let me make this clear, who I hold no truck against. But a country that in some sports, and especially in cricket, they have grown far too big for their boots.
From the garbage mouth David Campese to the charmless David Warner.
Throwing their weight about, and who have got away with talking trash for as long as I can remember.
You do not acquire a reputation in cricket like they have, without working hard at it.
Otherwise how does a country breed individuals like David Warner.
Because of that, there is very little sympathy throughout the cricketing world, and neither should there be.
They have been asking for this for a very long time.
There is only so far you can go before you run out of string.
They crossed the line years ago, and yet they end up tripping themselves up right out of the blue.
Instrumental in their own downfall, no help from anyone else.
How ironic is that.