Cricketers Association calls for penalties to be reconsidered
The Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) says bans handed to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft are disproportionate to precedents, asking Cricket Australia (CA) to reconsider its sanctions.
Smith and Warner received 12-month bans, and Bancroft nine months, over the ball-tampering incident in Cape Town.
But the ACA’s Greg Dyer said on the basis of the precedents set by other bans resulting from ball tampering, the CA rulings were unduly harsh and the players’ contrition had been “extraordinary”.
He also argued the players had been unfairly treated in having to front the media immediately after coming off the field.
Dyer said the distress experienced by the players had also been plain to see and had served as a form of punishment in itself.
I think Australia cried with Steve Smith last Thursday, I certainly did. We expect this contrition to be taken into account by ACA as any other process.
Dyer said ACA had been supporting the players as best it can since the incident during the third Test.
Mr Dyer also addressed the questions around the “win-at-all-costs” culture within Australian cricket.
“Organisational culture comes from its leadership and it comes from the top. It cannot be grafted onto the bottom.”