The storm clouds are gathering to have the Smith, Warner and Bancroft bans lifted

Sure, while we're at it lets get rid of ODI's and T20's since they weren't around in the 19th century and lets see how long cricket lasts on tests alone. You have a look at crowd attendance at tests in the 1980's when Australia was terrible. I remember one Gabba test got something like 16,000 … over 5 days. Look at the crown numbers for the last 2 Ashes by England. You think the 9 wins, 0 losses and 1 draw doesn't have anything to do with that? And why should Australia have "ethics, morality, honesty" when other teams don't? Why is two time ball tamperer Faf du Plesis still in the game? Why was Rabada's ban for the 3rd test overturned? Never before has a country's cricket board banned their own players for ball tampering.

I see no sporting credentials there. As I said, you think the NBA or UEFA would get someone like Longstaff to do a review? Umm, no. You think the AFL or NRL would savage and destroy themselves from within? HELL NO. You had a drug doping scandal in both the NRL and AFL and their response was some slaps on the wrists. I'm sure Simon Longstaff does great work with indigenous communities and in the corporate world. But he wasn't the right person to do this witch hunt.

Howard has been a disaster since the beginning!!

The batsman who was with Phil Hughes was alleged to have told his brother he was sledged leading up to his death, though the batsman then denied this at the inquest. The Hughes family said to the inquest the NSW team commited an act of manslaughter and then did a cover up. So I think they dont really care that Warner held his hand afterward

"Cheating to obtain an unfair advantage". Can we bring in Lance Armstrong, Ben Johnson a few Chinese swimmers!

Nothing wrong the bans in the slightest. And Smith is worth almost $30m, so no need to be concerned he's in any risk of wondering where his next meal is coming from. And if he's good enough he'll be back earning even larger amounts of money.

If the writer is trying to make equivalences between the punishments handed to Dravid and Tendulkar with the punishments meted out to the Australians, it would behoove him to mention that the ICC banned Steven Smith for 1 game with 100% of his match fee and Cameron bancroft with 75% of his match fee and no corresponding ban. It would also behoove him to point out that neither Dravid nor Tendulkar orchestrated an elaborate charade wherein Bancroft suggested he was using “sticky tape to pull granules from the soil to scratch the ball” while his captain sat besides him and endorsed this. And finally, it would also behoove him to point out that post the overturning of Tendulkars ban, the following test had its official status revoked by the ICC. Your Cricket Board decided to ban your players after it was found out that they used sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball. Don’t bring the Indians into this!

"DR SIMON LONGSTAFF AO FCPA Simon’s distinguished career includes being named as one of AFR Boss’ True Leaders for the 21st century, with Carol Schwartz noting; "I don’t know one CEO or chairman in corporate Australia who has not worked with Simon Longstaff". Simon Longstaff began his working life on Groote Eylandt (Anindilyakwa) in the Northern Territory where he worked in the Safety Department of the then BHP subsidiary, GEMCO. He is proud of his kinship ties with members of the island’s Indigenous community. Following a period studying law in Sydney and a brief career teaching in Tasmania, Simon undertook postgraduate studies in philosophy as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Simon commenced his work as the first Executive Director of The Ethics Centre in 1991. Simon is a Fellow of CPA Australia and in June 2016, was appointed an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University – based at the National Centre for Indigenous Studies. Formerly serving as the inaugural President of The Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics, Simon serves on a number of boards and committees across a broad spectrum of activities. He was formerly a Fellow of the World Economic Forum. In 2013, Dr Longstaff was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for "distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy." Yep, clearly an amateur from the 19th century. Now, perhaps you could share your qualifications so we can compare credibility?

Or he could simply ignore it and get on with batting? You know, like everyone else does. Unless you can provide examples of anyone else who has decided to wander off the field simply because they got sledged?

Agree entirely, Brian. They’re adults. Very well paid too. The captain of the team & a senior batsman, both chose to brazenly cheat. Anyone who believes that this is the fault of CA alone, is living in cloud cuckoo land. I couldn’t care less if they never represented their country again.

What did he do wrong. This was never about Sth Africa and if anything Warner did the right thing by walking away before it escalated and it would have.

Absolutely. The whole Hughes family were incredibly angry (due to their grief) at the the NSW team but especially those who gave evidence at the inquest, of which Warner was one. I would put money on that when Jason said Warner was a disgrace that it had nothing at all to do with Sth Africa.

In South Africa, Warner, and Australia got mentally disintegrated. Mentally destroyed. And I have no sympathy. Warner was taunted, his masculinity challenged (who wants to follow sonny bill William's???), humiliated, belittled. And I couldnt care less. Good on south Africa. We deserved it. Warner got angry. Got enraged. He cheated. He destroyed the Australian way: play hard, play fair. Far as I can tell the cricket board was culpable only insofar as they chose that grub Ricky Ponting to be captain over Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist would have captained in the richie begnaud tradition. Didn't he captain an India series win? Time for the Waugh-ponting-clark-smith tradition to wither. And if those three degenerates don't serve their time I'll never watch another minute of cricket again.

Yeah, back in the ice ages when words like standards, ethics, morality, honesty had some meaning. Clearly completelyunsuitable atmosphere for today's cricket administrators and the Australian Trst team. Anybody who wants a cricket ball sandpapered or a batsman's wife and kids slandered, sounds like Brendan's yer bovver boy of choice.

So are you saying the Hughes family should just have a tablespoon of cement each and just toughen up? Good Ol' Boy Davy done nuttin' wrong?

Yeh typical in todays world to handball the blame onto someone else. No accountability at all. As for all the tears... well, Im sorry, time to bloody man up and own it!

Except the report is a load of rubbish written by a bunch of amateurs from the 19th century.

The bans were idiotic and stupid. Faf can get busted TWICE for ball tampering and not face any consequences and we ban our own players? Name one other country that has banned their own players over ball tampering other than us? NONE. The bans were just to appease the self-righteous, holier-than-thou, hypocrites that call themselves cricket "fans".

Good on you Don! I agree with you about the tall poppy syndrome of the Aus cricketing public. I find it surprising that you apparently hold your cricketers to higher standards than your clergy. The sheer over-reaction to a piece of ball tampering gone too far leaves me stunned - it was hardly the first time any team has done it and it was also hardly the first time the Aussie team had indulged in unethical behaviour (hello... underarm? aluminium bat?) As an Indian fan, I am also amused at the blatant hypocrisy of many of the Oz cricket fans. For as long as Oz were winning, these fans defended "hard but fair" and were almost proud of the sledging and "mental disintegration" your team partook. Now that it has imploded in your faces, you have the gall to get on your high horse and judge the proponents and find them short? It really leaves me in splits. If you agreed with the tactics of the team, basic fairness demands that you stand by the team in this time of adversity and offer support to the players. If you did not agree with the tactics, why did nobody speak up before the problem became too big to ignore?

"It's about his only real raw point." Not sure the South African stairwell incident supports that.