DARREN LEHMANN is set to resign as Australia coach amidst the ball-tampering scandal.
The Telegraph have reported the head coach is set to be the first casualty from this weekend’s incredible cheat storm.
Captain Steve Smith was fined 100 per cent of his match fee and banned for the final Test in South Africa for outrageously admitting to ball-tampering.
He was stood-down as captain for the rest of the Third Test at Newlands – as well as walking away from his captaincy at IPL side the Rajasthan Royals.
David Warner was also relieved from his vice-captaincy duties over the weekend, while Cameron Bancroft – the man who fiddled with the ball – was fined 75 per cent of his match fee.
Now, with Smith missing for the Fourth Test, Australia have turned to English-born Matt Renshaw to replace him.
The Yorkshireman, 21, was originally dropped in favour of Bancroft at the start of the Aussie summer.
But now ten-cap Renshaw will be back in, with his adopted nation reeling from the horror show that has been the past week.
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Ever since Smith’s startling admission, Australians have been falling apart, utterly devastated.
Former Test skipper Kim Hughes called his nation “utterly disgraceful”, while the Australian media ripped Smith and Co to shreds.
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BBC TMS legend Henry Blofeld demanded Smith and Warner never play cricket again – while even Australia’s prime minister Malcolm Turnbull slammed his cricketers.
The recent revelations came as even more of a shock after Australia’s comments after South Africa’s Faf Du Plessis was said to have tampered with the ball against the Aussies in 2016.
Vice-captain Warner claimed: “I won’t comment on the way [South Africa] have been behaving.
“But I just know from an Australian cricket perspective: we hold our heads high and I’ll be very disappointed if one of our team-members did that.
“The rules are in place for a reason, if you’re not gonna use them, then why bother having them?
“That’s the fortunate thing these days, [the administrators have] got the rules and they’re going to stand by their decision and I think that’s going to be a good thing.
“We’ve all been on the back end of them from time to time.
“Now that they’re cracking down on it, so if you’re going to overstep that mark and you get fined, be prepared to miss Test matches as well.”
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