Ball-tampering row: Cricket stars slam 'spineless' ICC for leniency towards Smith
Cape Town: Australia cricket team’s ball-tampering scandal in the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town has shocked the cricketing world. After skipper Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft admitted towards cheating on Sunday, the visitors received a huge backlash from fans and the media all around the world.
That saw Smith along with his deputy David Warner stood down as captain and vice-captain for the remainder of the match. Following which the International Cricket Council (ICC), announced a 100% match fine for Smith along with handing him a one-match suspension.
However, the decision did not go down well with former international cricketers who slammed the international cricketing body for being in lenient towards their judgement for the Australia skipper.
One Test ban from @ICC for just the captain when they admitted a group came together and conspired to cheat the game?? Aussies must be giggling again! Assume @CricketAus will be far less lenient #sandpapergate
— Matt Prior (@MattPrior13) March 25, 2018
wow @ICC wow. Great treatment nd FairPlay. No ban for Bancroft with all the evidences whereas 6 of us were banned for excessive appealing in South Africa 2001 without any evidence and Remember Sydney 2008? Not found guilty and banned for 3 matches.different people different rules
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) March 25, 2018
If you only get a 1 Match ban and hit with a fine over admitting to cheating as an International Captain!! ... If the ICC are going by their list of sanctions against certain actions I think it’s time they were updated ... #SAvAUS
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 25, 2018
1 Match Ban & 100 % March fee Fine for Smith #ffs ... 75% match fee fine for Bancroft and some bloody De merit points for Bancroft ... Pathetic penalties for CHEATING ... Surely this moment was the time to set a precedent ... !!?? All the team should be penalised ..
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) March 25, 2018
ICC and Cricket Australia. Their discipline and credibility is more diluted than an homeopathy remedy.
— Graemefowler (@GFoxyFowler) March 25, 2018
In the world of cricket first degree cheating is the same as first degree murder. Smith cops 1game ban Bancroft none. ICC you are so spineless.
— Rodney Hogg (@RMHogg) March 25, 2018
A little birdie tells me that the weak ICC punishment isn’t anywhere near what Cricket Australia is thinking....
— Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) March 25, 2018
"It's been a horrible 24 hours -- I want to apologise to our fans and those back home," said Tim Paine, who was handed the stand-in skipper role on Sunday.
"We're struggling but the reality and the enormity of what's happened has probably started to sink in. I don't think we expected this to be as big as it has been, the fall-out we have seen from back home."
Smith will miss the fourth and final Test in Johannesburg from Friday due to his ban.
However, Bancroft, the 25-year-old opening batsman, escaped an ICC suspension. He was instead fined 75 percent of his fee, warned, and hit by three demerit points.
"The decision made by the leadership group of the Australian team to act in this way is clearly contrary to the spirit of the game," said ICC chief executive David Richardson.
Smith, who was out for just seven runs on Sunday, Warner and Bancroft were loudly booed by fans during Australia's second-innings surrender.
The admission of cheating brought a firestorm of anger, with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying he was "shocked and bitterly disappointed".
