Has the King lost his crown? Australian ball tampering!!!

Where do we go from here?

The laws of cricket allow for manipulation of the ball to some degree, the ball may be polished which allows the ball to swing, providing no artificial substance isn’t used.

Ball tampering has been around ever since the game of cricket began. Where players and teams try to get an advantage over the over team illegally.

Ball tampering in its self though has a grey history:

The history of ball tampering goes back centuries. There are many ways players have tried to illegally change the ball for their advantage.

For instance Michael Atherton, a famous former England captain and batsmen.

He was caught ball tampering in 1994 in a test match against South Africa at Lords. He was caught applying dirt to the ball which would help with the reverse swing of the ball. He was eventually fined £2000.

Shahid Afridi a Pakistani batsmen:

He was caught in the 5th ODI game in Perth against Australia. He appeared to be biting the ball, presumably trying to rough up one side again. He was banned for 2 games.

Faf Du Plessis a South African batsmen and captain.

Faf Du Plessis was caught twice of ball tampering. Firstly for scratching the ball against the zip of one of his pockets and secondly for shining the ball using a mint. All in all Du Plessis was striped 100% of his match fees and 8 penalty points.

However this case is different to them all. Steve Smith picked on the weakest member of the team(Bancroft) to do the dirty work for him, even so this was pre-mediated as they talked about it at Lunch. Even so they had a “leadership group” to work with them, the names haven’t been confirmed yet. Smith also stated it was the first time they tried this, which is extremely hard to believe however people in and around the cricket world believe it has been tested during first class games where there are only 2 cameras and easier to successfully perform.

Smith and Warner have already stood down from captaincy and vice captaincy and won’t be playing in the final test match due to the ICC banning. However we are know the punishment form cricket Australia as an investigation is currently on going. We know cricket Australia are strict with cheating and the President has come out explaining his disappointment, and how they have let the all sport in Australia.

Personally, I believe Smith should never play for Australia again however considering Smith is such a world-class player he will play for Australia again but not as captain but he would probably receive a ban from playing for Australia cricket for a while.

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