words from our fearless leader
Sutherland launches tampering probe
QANTAS TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICAaccess_time2:30
Cricket Australia will wait for an internal investigation to determine if captain Steve Smith or any of his teammates will receive additional sanctions for their actions during last night’s Test in Cape Town.
Cricket Australia's head of integrity Iain Roy and high performance manager Pat Howard will fly to South Africa to conduct the inquest, CA CEO James Sutherland said at a press conference today in Melbourne.
Sutherland said it’s a "sad day for Australian cricket”, but CA will not make any decisions "without all the facts" after Smith's stunning admission his side deliberately cheated by ball tampering.
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Rookie opener Cameron Bancroft was captured by television cameras with a piece of yellow tape with chunks of the pitch on the sticky side, used to rough up the ball in an attempt to generate reverse swing on day three in Cape Town.
"I was extremely disappointed and shocked to read the news this morning after events in Cape Town," Sutherland told a packed press conference.
"Australian cricket fans want to be proud of their cricket team and this morning they have every reason to wake up and not be proud of the team.
"It's a sad day for Australian cricket.
"One of the unique things about the game of cricket is that it's to be played not only within the laws of the game but also the spirit of the game.
"Activities on the field yesterday in Cape Town were neither within the laws of the game nor within the spirit of the game.
"For us at Cricket Australia that's extremely disappointing and more importantly, for Australian cricket fans, it's extremely disappointing."
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Sutherland made it clear no action will be taken by Cricket Australia with regard to the players involved until all information is collated.
"Unfortunately, that (Smith and Bancroft's admission) is not the end of it and can't be the end of it," he said.
"We have a responsibility to take this further and understand more about the issue.
"We will, over the next couple of days, get a deep understanding of what happened and why."
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Bancroft was charged by match referee Andy Pycroft with a Level 2 offence of attempting to alter the condition of the ball. It is understood the Western Australian has accepted the sanction, with the penalty still unknown.
Smith said the team's as yet undefined "leadership group" devised the plan at the lunch interval without the knowledge of the coaching staff.
"I'm not naming names but the leadership group talked about it and 'Bangers' was around at the time," said Smith after play.
"We spoke about it and thought it was a possible way to get an advantage.
"Obviously, today was a big mistake on my behalf and on the leadership group's behalf as well.
"But I take responsibility as the captain, I need to take control of the ship, but this is certainly something I'm not proud of and something that I hope I can learn from and come back strong from.
"I am embarrassed to be sitting here talking about this.
"We're in the middle of such a great series and for something like this to overshadow the great cricket that's been played and not have a single cricket question (at this press conference), that's not what I'm about and not what the team's about.
"We'll move past this. It's a big error in judgement but we'll learn from it and move past it."
https://www.cricket.com.au/news/jam...ustralia-south-africa-test-captain/2018-03-25
