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Steve Smith insists he has no plans to relinquish the captaincy over a ball-tampering saga destined to represent one of Australian cricket’s darkest hours.
Smith has confessed Australia’s leadership group authorised the illegal use of tape on day three of the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.
Players hatched the idea of cheating with sticky tape, which would capture debris from the pitch and scuff one side of the ball, at lunch on Saturday.
Cameron Bancroft used the tape while working on the ball in the post-lunch session then attempted to hide it from umpires.
Bancroft has been charged with ball tampering by match referee Andy Pycroft but the heat is well and truly on the man behind the plan.
Smith could yet face sanction from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and/or Cricket Australia (CA).
“I won’t be considering stepping down. I still think I’m the right person for the job,” he told reporters.
“Today was a big mistake on my behalf and on the leadership group’s behalf as well.
“I take responsibility as the captain. I need to take control of the ship.
“I’m incredibly sorry for trying to bring the game into disrepute the way we did.
“This is certainly something I’m not proud of and something that I can hope to learn from and come back strong from.”
The skipper wouldn’t divulge the other teammates involved in the discussion. The leadership group has featured David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the past.
Smith, with the exception of a couple of incidents on a spiteful tour of India last year, had enjoyed a squeaky-clean start to his century-laden captaincy.
The 28-year-old is yet to speak with Cricket Australia chairman David Peever, who is in Cape Town, or chief executive James Sutherland about the saga.
“I am embarrassed,” Smith said
“I know the boys in the shed are embarrassed as well and I feel for Cam.
“It’s a poor reflection on everyone in that dressing room, particularly the leaders.
“If we weren’t caught I’d still feel incredibly bad about it … it’s a big error in judgment.
“It was a poor choice and deeply regrettable.
“I can promise you it won’t happen again.”
Smith insisted coaching staff, including Darren Lehmann, were not aware of the premeditated plan and that his side have never tried using tape to scuff the ball before.
“Obviously it didn’t work. The umpires didn’t see it change the way the ball was behaving,” Smith said.
“We saw this game as such an important game.
“We’ve seen the ball reversing quite a lot throughout this series and our ball just didn’t look like it was going to go.”
Discussion about both sides attaining early reverse-swing has dominated the series. Questions are already being asked about the tourists’ conduct in previous Tests.
“You can ask questions as much as you like but I can promise you this is the first time it’s happened,” Smith said.
“It’s not what we want to see in the game. It’s not what the Australian cricket team’s about.”
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