Shame! Australian cricketers always stand first in doing ugly, illegal and indecent things on-field. Smith’s admittance and justification was also disgusting. What kind of message does he want to convey to the young cricketers? ICC must take a strong action against this team. The team captain should be banned from playing couple of test matches.
As the Australian captain Steve Smith admits that Bancroft has done ball tempering during on-going Test match against South Africa at Cape Town, both the players Bancroft and Steve Smith must be banned from playing next two games of international cricket immediately. Also, the Australian team should be allowed to complete the test with substitutes on the field. It is a blot on Australian players because the think tank of the Australian team was also involved in this shocking and unfortunate incident.
Michael Clarke claiming a grounded catch and succeeding, strongly supported by Capt Ponting, when there was no DRS. Micheal Slater claiming ditto, turned down by Umpire Venkatraghavan after referring to Third Umpire, who ruled it was grounded. But, Slater vociferously arguing with Venkat, with McGrath, Hayden etc joining in, and sledging Dravid for long; many other instances involving Aussies brought the game to disrepute. They are too smug, arrogant and insufferable as sportsmen from a country where Sports and Sports fraternity are considered heroes. They are now facing defeat and presented a dejected look after Rabada got a reprieve from two Tests ban.
Captain Steve Smith and Bancroft confessing to ball tampering earlier caught on camera and it is a very sad day for the gentleman’s game. Though, he has agreed to step down along with his vice captain. He is an excellent batsman having batting average less than Bradman only, but he will now be remembered for abetting to cheating and bringing game to disrepute during rest of his life. Losing the test match and even series would not have damaged his career and reputation as badly as this incident did. Was there no sane person in the leadership group he is talking about that took the decision to alter shape of the ball in a crooked way and that too in the open. The Cricket Australia Board must act immediately to clear the mess created by ‘leadership group’ of Steve Smith.
The Australian cricket team under Captain Steve Smith has established itself as the leading cheater in the game today. In an early series against India Smith was caught in a brain fade incident. Smith was caught ‘looking upstairs” for hints from his TV team about the LBW decision, before officially appealing for review! It is difficult to explain why they indulge in such cheap tactics when they have such a good team.
The end result Australia lost miserably to South Africa and conceded a 2-1 lead. The ICC suspended Steven Smith for one test and fined him 100% of his match fee while Cameron Bancroft lost 75% of his match fee while gaining three demerit points. Smith was charged under Article 2.2.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct, which prohibits all types of conduct of a serious nature that is contrary to the spirit of the game. Bancroft was charged or a Level 2 offence under Article 2.2.9 which relates to “changing the condition of the ball”. In all, it was shame for the Kangaroos as they are at their arrogant best and needs to be censored for all their on-field offences.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Australian cricket touched a peak period and won many test matches at home and abroad mainly with the talent of their players. The will to win at every opportune moment made them to use short cut to success. Sledging formed part of their trade in the field of play and later on resorted to tampering of the cricket ball. Thus desperation has driven Aussies to go for unwanted methods to get advantage and thereby win matches as well. In the last Ashes series, Australia won Ashes comfortably but it was lamented that OZ tampered during a tough series as well.