Ball Tampering Row: Steve Smith & company deserve punishment, not vengeance

ICC has handed out punishment as provided by the rules, Cricket Australia may punish them severly but calls for a life ban are beyond the pale.

Ball Tampering Row : Steven Smith, Australia’s Cricket captain who presided over the most demonstrably pre-meditated act of cheating on a Cricket field will not play in his team’s next Test match. He will likely be stood down from his leadership position longer than that. He would be ill-advised to try and see out a contract at the Rajasthan Royals and he should go stand in a corner, facing the wall, for the foreseeable short-term future.

Suitable punishments for Smith have been discussed with life ban having been suggested too. The outrage, especially in social media circles, has reached such a fever pitch that those baying for blood will continue to bleat till they have been heard.

The most absurd suggestion has compared the actions of Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith and David Warner, and anyone else in the leadership group, to match-fixing. If anything, this is the opposite of that, the worst thing a cricketer can possibly do. Match fixers undermine the credibility of a game, underperform for a fee, while this Australian team, was doing the opposite.

Make no mistake, Bancroft and friends were trying to gain an unfair advantage over South Africa, to try and win. You can only fix a match, or a performance, to under-perform.

Here is a team trying to take an unfair advantage over the opposition. This is more akin to a sportsperson doping than one trying to make a big buck by selling his game out. There is no excusing Bancroft and friends, but comparisons to match fixing, and suggestions of life-time bans are ridiculous.

Acting as swiftly as it possibly can, the International Cricket Council brought charges, heard the case and delivered their verdict: Smith was gone for a game, Bancroft fined heavily and put on notice.

The ICC acted precisely as their Code of Conduct allowed, and handed out punishments in proportion to the breaches committed.But, this was never about ball tampering alone. As has been made clear, there is almost no team that does not try to gain the greatest advantage over the condition of a ball, but the manner in which this Australian team blatantly flouted the laws, challenged the umpires when caught and then tried to jettison the evidence, left the rest of the Cricket world with little choice.

As for the charges brought, the ICC has done its bit and doled out justice as per its parameters. Cricket Australia are yet to move, but there is every indication that they will go above and beyond what the ICC have sanctioned.