IPL 2018: Why Smith must not be treated as criminal over ball tampering row
The ball tampering scandal involving Australian cricket team captain Steve Smith, vicecaptain David Warner and opening batsman Cameron Bancroft has seen some serious action being taken by Cricket Australia, as well as Indian Premier League (IPL) governing council.Four days after the scandal came to light, Cricket Australia swung into action on Wednesday and suspended all three. While Smith and Warner were handed a 12-month suspension from the national side, Bancroft got a 9-month suspension.Meanwhile, the IPL governing council in New Delhi also decided to bar Smith and Warner from VIvo IPL 2018. Both had earlier stepped down from the captaincy of their respective IPL 2018 franchises – Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad – after the duo had earlier been retained by the franchises for a whopping Rs 125 million each. Earlier, Australian cricket team captain Steve Smith had admitted to his side’s deliberate and pre-planned act of ball tampering on field on the third day of their third test match
against South Africa in Cape Town. After opening batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera while scratching the ball, Smith had said that it was his team’s premeditated strategy, hatched during the lunch break, with the team leadership also involved.According to a CA statement, Smith and Bancroft were also banned from leadership positions for 12 months after completing their one-year ban from international and domestic cricket. Warner was banned from all leadership positions in Australian cricket for life. The players were found to have breached article 2.3.5 of the CA Code of Conduct, which relates to conduct at any time that is contrary to the spirit of the game, unbecoming of a representative, harmful to the interests of the game or bringing the game into disrepute.The three will be allowed to play club cricket and were encouraged by the CA to do so "to maintain links with the cricket community".However, there also are views that the punishments handed to the three cricketers might be too harsh, given the nature of their offence. Should they have been banned by the IPL governing council from participating in IPL 2018, and by CA from playing for the country or taking leadership positions in the team for a year or more?Let’s take a look at the whole story in detail and earlier such instances to gauge if the punishments in the extant case are suitable: The present ball-tampering scandal:Smith allowed a junior-rank player to tamper with the cricket ball -- an act that has been carried out on a sly by some illustrious names during earlier times but a risky proposition with over 100 cameras capturing every angle.He then admitted to having 'Brain Fade 2.0' and all hell broke loose as if the most ghastly act had been carried out by a hard-core criminal.Shamed by the country's cricket establishment, vilified by the media and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a cricket enthusiast, joining the chorus – life would never be the same for the 28-year-old (now former) Australian captain. Unjust vilification?People have come back from harsher punishment and graver acts of transgression but very few times have one seen such public outrage at something that everyone knew was happening but no one spoke decisively as there wasn't any proof.Smith admitted to his guilt but the manner in which Cricket Australia's elaborate release on the charges levelled against him tried to portray him as the first among the equals of rare breed of criminals.Look who is talking The BCCI, not the cleanest of organisations, put itself on a pulpit and banned Smith, Warner and Bancroft from IPL 2018, after backlash from sections of media.Strangely the same BCCI, then and now, hardly cared about the public perceptions when it came to the conduct of their officebearers.
ARTICLE SOURCE- BUSINESS STANDARD.