WATCH: Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith press conferences

But he’s right Neil. If you’d review the noise this last week without a jaundiced take, you’d acknowledge there has been a lot of it from Hussain, Vaughn, Broad, Swann, Prior, Atherton etc that smacks of “dancing on a grave”. Plenty from elsewhere also but the England noise has been very different than we’ve heard from SA, NZ etc

Actually “World cricket’s” judgement was in line with how it judged all the other ball tamperers in the history of the game - essentially that they don’t consider it to be a particularly important issue. Cricket Austrlia’s view was rather different.

What a crock. Ball tampering is about the equivalent of jay-walking. The reaction was way way over the top. When has "ball tampering" ever made that much of a difference to a match and just about every team (and at the very least you can't tell a captain wouldn't at least be aware of it) has done it for a slap on the wrist? Spirit of the game? Pah. We get roads served up every single series, supercharged bats that send the ball rocketing to the boundary with a short-armed defensive block, it's forever loaded in favour of the bat without constraint. How is that one-sidedness in the "spirit of the game"?

Just remember Warner is a first class A**H**E but that does not make him a liar at all. Lets see what he says

PK, where did you get that from. Another sweeping nonsensical statement.

Rodger, your right. The evidence is there to execute! And execution has been delivered far beyond any measure of others around the world who have found been guilty of ball tampering. The razor sharp focus on this incident has rolled into questioning the fabric of Australian team cultural and leadership capabilities and rightly so! (another story) FYI, I admire Steve Smith as a batsman, yet as a captain of the Australian team he has been found wanted in situations where leadership is required! Cricket family :) this is not an isolated case in any level of the game. (local to regional, state, national and internal teams) Ask any bowler that runs in with vigorous intent on a flat deck and nothing happens over a period of time, the good old lozenges start diminishing from the original packet and the shine on the ball gets highlighted like the rings of Saturn! So, does the punishment fit the crime! Absolutely not. Does, the slinging of mud when a man is down is warranted! Absolutely not! Keep your chin up SS, DW CB & DL Where our frustrations and annoyances should be directed to is the front and backroom staff. Pat Howard, who is a good man with a great brain, needs to be held accountable for the growth of the supporting staff and the mechanical systems he has put in place. The players are people first before cricketers. They have families & friends! When we fail to see this first we get the hysteria and momentum of whats been unfolding in the media. Thank you for reading. Enjoy

Come on everyone - firstly everyone says it was only this and only that and we shouldn't be so hard. Now we all have to be softly softly because some bloke cries on TV. He didn't kill anyone, he hasn't been unfairly charged with murder or drug trafficking - no he presided over a team with the world's best bowlers and decided cheating was his best option. As a captain he has been pissweak, nothing else. As a batter, a genius.And mind you handsomely paid for which we have to pay for through high priced tickets.He's copped a penalty now toughen up and be fair dinkum honest - check the report on him and Dave Warner ball tampering in the Shield match and how he responded to the umpires then. HE HAS HISTORY and he cheated with the DRS - so he Warner and Lehamnn cand take their medicine and next time don't drag some poor kid desperate to hold his spot. As for THAT interview - he didn't answer the most important question put to him - "tell us Steve, why did you do it?" He couldn't as he was a captain bereft of ideas!

Look up Whackhead pranks Kyle and Jackie O he got them back and sucked money out of the station while doing it.

You want cricket australia to investigate and sanction opponents too? Endorsed by those above, Lehmann and senior members of the team very publicly made this 'we head butt the line' bed.

Lehmann could've intervened but relished Warner being aggressive and abusive as part of his pathetic approach to the game.

Don’t you have livestock to attend to Jake

"They had an hour to decide to say it was tape, not sandpaper..." - This right here is the damning evidence of the morality (or lack thereof) of the whole team setup. Smith spent 30 minutes off the field in the last session plus the hour between end of play and the press conference and we're supposed to believe that he and they spoke with no-one about what to say at that press conference? Sometimes, when something looks all tidy with no loose ends at all, it proves to be not necessarily so.

Because their audience loves it - if no-one watched, listened or read the muck raking they wouldn't do it.

Good clip, ty.

so when will SA, Eng and India pay up for their win at all cost attitude? Of course only applies to australia.

Oh look over there. Others are doing it too. Those on the sub continent are sooooo much worse. The same whataboutery you’ve been castigating others for all week. He’s talking about the poms and he’s right. The poms have been more vocal and shown more glee than anyone. Vaughn in particular.

Taylor also said you couldn't breathe on the ball in the England side without jimmy and broad knowing about it and checking it afterward.....no one at all seems to believe the bowlers were unaware. That is going to hang over them for the foreseeable, certainly starc, Lyon and hazelwood (everyone loves Cummins, even us in England! So he will be fine)....it's even worse now that everyone can see smith suffering so much, because it just looks like they've just let him shoulder the burden on his own

In Australia maybe, but I doubt it as I saw the morning talk shows abusing stokes (including Candice Warner for some reason) but there is plenty of outrage still in England....and he has a criminal trial still to face! So in that respect I'm sure smiths pretty glad he's not stokes. I feel for smith as everyone does, but the issue is the cover up and lies. Stokes was a drunk hothead and will likely face criminal charges, but it was in the moment....as other ball tampering scandals were in the past....temporary lunacy. Smith and co have not been banned for the act, they have been banned for planning it, then lying to the umpires, then lying to a whole press room (likely not realising it from the start that they couldn't get away with it). They had an hour to decide to say it was tape, not sandpaper, yes that's an error of judgment but when time is involved it becomes a question of whether it's an error of judgement that's in your moral fibres, not your fast twitch ones. I said from the start I've no doubt it was warner who has led smith astray, but James Taylor wrote a piece in the evening standard saying that actually they're both as bad as each other and pretty grim in the field, hence why few people have leapt to their defence....so maybe the break will do smith some good and help him to mature a littl without warner around

Smith pretty gutted but he stuffed up so has to take his punishment. I do find it a bit weird that the Ben Stokes incident received less punishment and a lot less moral outrage. If Smith had done the same as Stokes instead off ball tampering would his punishment have been less?

you guys have had a good chance to grind this axe over the last week but maybe lay off the guy now he's works his way through his punishment