Cricket Australia has come down hard on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft but ‘tampergate’ will not end here
The harder you step in mess, the more it spreads. Last Saturday Cricket Australia found a flaming bag of the stuff on its doorstep and, just like the headteacher in the high school movie, decided the best way to put it out was to stamp right down on it. CA has banned Steve Smith and David Warner from all state and international cricket for a year, Cameron Bancroft for nine months, and ordered all three to do 100 hours of community service. Smith will not be eligible for any kind of leadership role in the Australian team for another two years, Warner ever again. The three, and their lawyers, have seven days to appeal. The crime was petty, the cover-up clumsy, the punishment swift and vicious. Warner and Smith have both been cut from this year’s Indian Premier League, too. Outside of the treatment given to match fixers, there is no precedent in cricket for such heavy sentences. They are certainly not in line with those given to the other players who have been caught ball-tampering in recent years. But then CA did not charge these three with that, but with conduct unbecoming and bringing the game into disrepute. Which are such nebulous offences that it makes it hard to judge whether or not the punishments fit the crime.
If they were even supposed to. Those charges suggest CA was more worried about addressing the outcry than the offence. And even then, it is not clear whether it wanted to appease its public, who are split about whether or not the bans are appropriate, or its sponsors and broadcast partners. It was only last week that CA knocked back a joint bid from the Nine and Ten networks for its TV rights because it was too low. Seven days later, CA’s negotiating position does not look quite so strong. But such is modern sport. It is not just the fans and your coach to whom you have to answer.
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Related: Steve Smith and David Warner banned for a year for ball-tampering
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