Australian cricket player caught spot-fixing at Lord’s in 2010

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Australian cricket in the biggest scandal to hit the Test game since three Pakistan players were caught spot-fixing at Lord’s in 2010.

Australia captain Steve Smith has been banned for one match and fined his match fee by cricket’s world governing body (ICC) for his part in a ball-tampering incident in South Africa recently.

Smith admitted the team’s “leadership group” had a plan, carried out by Cameron Bancroft, to tamper with the ball to “get an advantage over South Africa”.

As a result Captain Steve Smith has been forced to miss the fourth and final Test of the series.

Bancroft was fined 75% of his match fee and got three demerit points.

Steve Smith has also stepped down as captain of Indian Premier League side Rajasthan Royals following the ball-tampering controversy during Australia’s third Test defeat by South Africa.

The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has called for Smith “to be stood down immediately, along with any other members of the team leadership group or coaching staff who had prior awareness of, or involvement in, the plan of ball tampering “.

This  is the latest and most serious violation of an unwritten cricketing moral code that Australia claim to adhere to.

Cast your mind back to the Ashes and talk of “the line” – the mythical barrier which separates what is acceptable on a cricket field to what is not. Australia insist it has not crossed the line, but other cricket nations disagreed. 

The Aussies set themselves as this higher than high, pious team who look down at everyone and set the benchmark for what is right and what is wrong in cricket,” said former England off-spinner Graeme Swann.  “Everyone that’s played against them knows that’s an absolute joke.”

Let’s be honest, “Sledging is just bullying dressed up in Australian cricket whites, 

So what’s next?

Cricket Australia will have to see the bigger picture now for the good of the game.  They will have to ban Smith, his nasty little sidekick David Warner and the rest of the infamous leadership group for a year and they will have to sack coach Darren Lehmann.

But, much more than that, they will have to disband a culture that has made Australia the most hated cricket team in the world and start over again. Then, if Smith, Warner do not comply when they return, they have to be finished in the game.

That’s the way I see it!

 

 

 

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