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Steve Smith and ball-tampering scandal, LIVE updates: David Warner's captaincy at Sunrisers Hyderabad under threat
Date: Monday, 26 March, 2018 16:07 IST
Match Status: Yet to Start
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HIGHLIGHTS
Cricket Australia begin probe in South Africa
According to news channels, Cricket Australia have begun their prove into the ball-tampering incident. Cameron Bancroft is reportedly the first one to be grilled.
Could David Warner also lose Sunrisers Hyderabad captaincy?
Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman has told PTI that the franchise would wait for Cricket Australia's decision on captain David Warner before taking a call on his participation.
Steve Smith steps down as Rajasthan Royals captain?
According to media reports, Steve Smith has given up the captaincy of Indian Premier League outfit Rajasthan Royals. The reports added that Ajinkya Rahane could take over as skipper.
Crucial hours for Steve Smith, Darren Lehmann and David Warner
“The Cricket Australia Board has been fully updated on the issue and supports James (Sutherland, CEO of Cricket Australia) travelling to South Africa to manage the response to the investigation currently underway. We expect to be able to fully update the Australian public on the findings on Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening in Johannesburg).”
“We understand that everyone wants answers, but we must follow our due diligence before any further decisions are made,” Cricket Australia Chairman David Peever said in a statement put out by CA.
'Australians want answers'
“I am travelling to Johannesburg this evening and will arrive on Tuesday morning (local time) to meet Iain (Roy, Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Integrity) to understand the findings of the investigation to that point, and to determine recommended outcomes.
“We know Australians want answers and we will keep you updated on our findings and next steps, as a matter of urgency,” Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has said in a statement.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland to travel to South Africa
According to a press release put out by Cricket Australia, CA's Executive General Manager for Team Performance Pat Howard and Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Integrity Iain Roy have already left for South Africa. Meanwhile, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland will also join them in the Rainbow Nation by the end of the day.
Steve Smith is a great batsman, but is he a great cricketer?
This incident will certainly see Smith lose a lot of respect, particularly from opponents and perhaps most damningly from the Australian cricket public, writes Akash Fotedar. You can read his piece here.
A timeline of ball-tampering incidents in cricket:
Cricket Australia begin probe in South Africa According to news channels, Cricket Australia have begun their prove into the ball-tampering incident. Cameron Bancroft is reportedly the first one to be grilled.
Could David Warner also lose Sunrisers Hyderabad captaincy? Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman has told PTI that the franchise would wait for Cricket Australia's decision on captain David Warner before taking a call on his participation.
It's official! Steve Smith to be replaced by Ajinkya Rahane as Rajasthan Royals captain
Steve Smith steps down as Rajasthan Royals captain? According to media reports, Steve Smith has given up the captaincy of Indian Premier League outfit Rajasthan Royals. The reports added that Ajinkya Rahane could take over as skipper.
Should Ponting and Langer be the ones Australia look to to get the country's cricket team out of this crisis?
Former cricketers have their say While Michael Clarke has urged Australians that Steve Smith be forgiven, here's what some former cricketers have had to say: “Australian cricket is the laughing stock of the sporting world.” — Adam Gilchrist “Disappointed in Steve Smith as captain to go out there and do that. To me it was un-Australian. I don’t care who you are you can’t tamper with the ball.” — Shane Warne “I’m shocked at what’s gone on. I’ve never seen anything as blatant as that.” — Shaun Pollock “It was pre-meditated and they’ve been caught. They have been shown to cheat.” — Greame Smith
Michael Clarke urges Australians to forgive Steve Smith "I do feel for Steve Smith. 100 percent he has made a major mistake and he and a lot of other people I think are going to have to suffer the consequences," Clarke told Channel Seven . "That's fair enough. But I think it's important that we do over time forgive as well." Read the rest of Clarke's comments here .
Australian media letting it rip The backlash in Australia has been intense! The Australian media, for one, have ripped apart Steve Smith and the rest of the Australian team. The influential broadsheet The Australian had the headline “Smith’s Shame” on their front page -- a sentiment echoed by other publications in the country. Sports writer Robert Craddock, in his piece in Australia's Daily Telegraph , wrote: “It was the culmination of a grubby win-at-all-costs culture finally crossing from self-righteous rule-bending into a world of shameless, bald-faced cheating.” The Sydney Morning Herald was scathing in its assessment of the Australian cricket leadership, saying, "As this disreputable tour descended from the gutter into the sewer, the mythical line the Australians use as the yardstick for their behaviour has not only become blurred but disappeared altogether. This has been a truly awful few weeks for Australian cricket whose reputation has hit a new low. Rehabilitation will be long and slow.” Here's what the rest of the Australian media has had to say about the issue.
Crucial hours for Steve Smith, Darren Lehmann and David Warner “The Cricket Australia Board has been fully updated on the issue and supports James (Sutherland, CEO of Cricket Australia) travelling to South Africa to manage the response to the investigation currently underway. We expect to be able to fully update the Australian public on the findings on Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening in Johannesburg).” “We understand that everyone wants answers, but we must follow our due diligence before any further decisions are made,” Cricket Australia Chairman David Peever said in a statement put out by CA.
'Australians want answers' “I am travelling to Johannesburg this evening and will arrive on Tuesday morning (local time) to meet Iain (Roy, Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Integrity) to understand the findings of the investigation to that point, and to determine recommended outcomes. “We know Australians want answers and we will keep you updated on our findings and next steps, as a matter of urgency,” Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has said in a statement.
Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland to travel to South Africa According to a press release put out by Cricket Australia, CA's Executive General Manager for Team Performance Pat Howard and Senior Legal Counsel and Head of Integrity Iain Roy have already left for South Africa. Meanwhile, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland will also join them in the Rainbow Nation by the end of the day.
Steve Smith is a great batsman, but is he a great cricketer? This incident will certainly see Smith lose a lot of respect, particularly from opponents and perhaps most damningly from the Australian cricket public, writes Akash Fotedar. You can read his piece here .
Australian cricket's moment of crisis It's been an intense couple of days for the sport, with the ball-tampering scandal blowing up. Australian captain has been suspended for a match, but there are indications coming from Australia that Smith could be facing a lot worse than being stripped of his captaincy. With the issue far from over, Firstpost will be bringing all the latest updates and reactions from the cricketing world.
Sydney: A ban for captain Steve Smith in no way eased the fury directed at the leadership of the Australia cricket team as the sports-mad nation returned to work on Monday still digesting the ball-tampering scandal which broke in Cape Town over the weekend.
The story led the front pages of all of the country’s major newspapers, the headlines mostly working around the single word “Shame”, and on radio talk shows and social media the offenders were lambasted with a vehemence unusual for even those forums.
An image grab taken from AFP TV shows Australia's captain Steve Smith (right), besides Cameron Bancroft at a press conference. AFP
“As this disreputable tour descended from the gutter into the sewer, the mythical line the Australians use as the yardstick for their behaviour has not only become blurred but disappeared altogether,” Andrew Wu wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“The disconnect from what Steve Smith’s men deem as acceptable behaviour compared to what the majority of the public back home has become as wide as the Indian Ocean which separates them.”
There is no hyperbole involved when Australians describe the cricket captaincy as the country’s second most important job behind that of prime minister and the concept of playing “hard, but fair” has always been integral to the national identity.
For Smith, therefore, to have deliberately conspired to cheat by getting a junior member of his team to tamper with the ball during the third test against South Africa cuts to the very quick of the Australian psyche.
Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull intervened on Sunday to demand quick action from Cricket Australia and they, after initially demurring, responded by standing down Smith and vice captain David Warner from their roles.
Smith was later handed a one-match ban for his part in the scandal by the International Cricket Council, while the junior player involved, opener Cameron Bancroft, was fined 75 percent of his match fee.
Both will remain in South Africa while Cricket Australia conducts its own investigation, the governing body confirmed on Monday, and more punishments can be expected after that.
In the space of two days, top batsman Smith has gone from Australia’s cricketing golden boy to national pariah and it looks likely that he has played his last test as captain.
Some of the most vehement reactions to the incident have come from his predecessors in the coveted baggy green cap, which each player is awarded on his test debut.
“Steve Smith’s time as Australia’s captain is surely up,” former fast bowler and possible future Australia coach Jason Gillespie wrote for Guardian Australia.
“It is impossible to envisage a scenario where he stays in the job. This is a train wreck.
“This was pre-planned cheating. It may have been implemented by a junior player in Cameron Bancroft but it came with the backing and knowledge of ‘the leadership group’, a core of senior guys in the Australian set-up.”
The identity of the leadership group that Smith admitted was responsible for Bancroft attempting to scuff up one side of the ball with a piece of tape was the subject of some conjecture, with Warner the only name definitely in the frame.
Several of the Australian correspondents in Cape Town report that some of the other supposed members of the group, pace bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, have moved swiftly to distance themselves from the incident.
Warner’s chequered past and predilection for aggressive “sledging” had always made it highly unlikely that he would be promoted to the top job but his slim hopes of a promotion have surely been extinguished by his part in the scandal.
Darren Lehmann will also have questions to answer after clearly trying to cover up the incident once he realised the TV pictures had exposed Bancroft’s cheating, even if Smith insisted the coach had not been part of the conspiracy.
Cricket Australia, coming off a highly damaging labour dispute last year, have also come under fire for the temerity of their initial response.
(With inputs from Reuters)