Time for Cricket Australia to end the Smith, Warner and Bancroft bans

Your argument for Australia being more honourable is based on Australia enforcing the punishments, yet your entire argument is that the punishments should be suspended and were from the start wrong, you dont see the logical problem with that? Those three players are cheats and even worse than cheats the two powerful players got the least powerful player on the team to do the cheating so they are cowards as well. I also dont see how the internationality of cricket comes into any punishment that Australia decides. Unless you also want other cricketing nations to have a say in how Australia plays cricket. Lehmann may well be innocent but the footage of him shown is not the footage of a man who just saw his players cheat and is apoplectic with anger asking what the f++k is going on, which is what CA said he said. At the time of the footage of Lehmann asking whats happening over the radios, the commentators knew that Bancroft had been rubbing something on the ball, we and Lehmann knew he was cheating yet Lehmann doesnt seem concerned at all and neither did the 12th man who, again from the footage, was very casual. Though maybe Lehmann and the players are just all super damn cool and chill guys.

And India won't be whitewashing Australia.. Definitely not in Tests.. Doesn't matter what team Australia is coming up with.

All 3 were found guilty of cheating. Go to jail. Don't pass go.

David, what is the merit of letting them return? Because the others who got caught didn't face the same severity? That's the same line of thought when someone who smuggles drugs around Australia gets a fine/jail sentence, while if you get caught doing that in SE Asia, then it's curtains. Quite simply, CA made a decision to punish them, and they should stick to it. They disgraced the identity of Australian cricket by their low acts. I personally supported a lifetime ban being a firm deterrent for the future, but the decision was made, and nothing they have done suggests they should re-enter earlier.

How was Bancroft missed for his batting in the Pakistan series? Khawaja and Finch were our best batsmen.

He got a fine from the ICC and that was it.

"The condition of the ball wasn’t altered according to the umpires" Being an incompetent cheat doesn't make someone any less of a cheat.

The umpire would only have been interested in the player caught tampering, and the captain. He had no reason to talk to Warner. Similarly at the time of the press conference. Neither gives any grounds for ascribing virtue to Warner, although it does give those wishing to think Warner virtuous something to cling to. And , in my view far worse, it says nothing about the lack of virtue in Warner's role in pushing the newest, youngest, most vulnerable member of the team into breaking the rules. Can you genuinely not see that?

That's the thing though, Warner didn't lie about it. He wasn't involved with the umpire on the field, that was Smith and Bancroft, and he wasn't involved in the press conference where they very publicly lied and knew it, that was also Smith and Bancroft.

Have to agree the penalties they received should set an example should they have got more? In my opinion & that's only mine they got what they deserved & so be it no use crying over spilt milk move on

David Lord does not tell us what connection, financial or just good mates, if any, he has with Fox, Seven or Cricket Australia. That will tell us a lot about his reasons for writing this article. Fox means Murdoch which means they wouldn't know an ethical principle if it rose up and bit them on the posterior. Seven still think they have an entitlement to print money. I would expect their contract with CA to have performance incentives so that the more viewers the more money CA gets. Just a short step to "Let's find a compliant scribbler to knock out a story saying cut the bans on these three ball tamperers so they can play India so we can all make more money." Passing thought. How come WAs Justin Langer keeps selecting the non performing Marshes from WA? Good mates? It certainly can't have anything to do with the quality of their cricket. David doesn't see fit to consider that Australia's captain and vice-captain cooked up this scheme with or without the coach (and how could he not know?) and ordered the newest youngest member of the team to break the rules. Smith and Warner didn't even have the guts to do it themselves - and when caught they lied about it. They sold Bancroft down the river. THAT is why I think the bans for these two were right and for Bancroft too harsh. I don't give a toss whether Australia lose 3-0 to India. Next time be careful about picking honest ethical players, not over-entitled self-important bullies. AND David's suggesting that we should in any way use the BCCI or ICC as any guide to ethical behaviour is plain laughable. Love to hear from you, David

I'm not pretending nobody else does it. I am saying the CA punishments are appropriate, the ICC ones are not, even after CA gave them cover to finally put a true deterrent in place. Is the light punishment part of the cause of the prevalence of ball-tampering? Hard to say really, but it is cheating and deserves to be treated as such. The broadcast bias is another issue (but seems true).

It is strange that the "outraged" masses over this caused an over reaction. There has been more written and said about ball tampering by the lads than there has been about the abuse of children in central Australia, but that's the media for you(and pollies). Perhaps a little perspective leading to a measured response rather than a knee jerk burning at the stake would have been more appropriate. It is a game of cricket for goodness sake, happens every single week in grade cricket and below now and will continue. In football you get six weeks for rearranging there face in an assault but in cricket you get 18 months for doing what everyone else does. For goodness sake perspective!

Woofles, you failed to understand what is being said. Nobody is saying this is not crime. Nobody is saying they do not deserve punishment. But a penalty should be adjusted to the amount of crime. You do not give death penalty to pick pockets. Ball tempering was there for long time. The wannabe standard bearers were trying to follow the paths of their predecessors who made golden age of australian cricket possible. They knew what to be done,they knew what exactly they were doing,impact and possible results of it. They ban andrew symonds,he comes back and instantly MOM. They oust steve waugh and ponting comes up making australian cricket team a team from another planet. what are you expecting from this penalty except wasting half an year of good cricket? a 6 month ban would be tough as it could be. When a PM calls out his country's players like that,there is no where to hide. I am really struggling to understand what CA was trying to do there except pretending to be wannabe tough guys.

I disagree. Ball tampering is endemic. We are naive if we believe nobody does it. Only visiting teams ever get caught because the home broadcasters almost never focus on home teams. The typical punishment handed down by ICC is reasonable keeping these real-life facts in mind.

David, you asked "If the ICC cannot bring itself to hand down 12-month suspensions, why should Cricket Australia do so?" Let me answer your question with another question: "Given the ICC are sissies and too scared to stand up for what is fair, what is the most reasonable response for Australia given the disgraceful actions of the cheaters?" The bans are necessary because they send an oft-ignored message - cheating is a disgrace. The fact they are still suspended serves as a great reminder for every cricketer and indeed every sportsman.

Warner is being treated differently because (a) he was identified as the ringleader of the attempted tampering, including urging a junior player to carry it out, and (b) he'd had several strikes with already (the most recent being the carry-on two tests previous). By comparison, Smith's behavioural record had been basically spotless to that point. I've got no desire to throw Warner under a bus and I don't know him at all. I don't need to, in order to see how his circumstances were worse.

A 'just over 30 average' would make Bancroft one of our best bats at the moment. He top scored for us in the first three SA tests (223 runs at 37, with two 50s and only one score under 20) and was miles ahead of his teammates in tough conditions. Given how rubbish most of our batsmen were in the UAE, if he's not a walk-up start then he's close to it.

There are no modern precedents in Australian cricket (or World cricket, for that matter) for this scale of ball tampering and cover-up.

I did and do think that the penalty was excessive but once handed down, that was it. CA couldn't back down on it.