The Australia Cricketers Association has called for the bans on ball-tampering trio Cameron Bancroft, David Warner and Steve Smith to be lifted.
This comes after reports about Cricket Australia’s dealings were released on Monday and caused a stir in the cricket community.
The board was labelled as an ‘arrogant’, ‘controlling’ and ‘overwhelmingly business-focused’ group who forgot how to abide by the spirit of the game in their hunger to win.
The report suggested that the attitude and actions of the board filtered down to the players and was the instigator in the ball-tampering saga that took place in Cape Town in March.
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This was confirmed by ACA president and former Test keeper Greg Dyer.
‘Events in South Africa were in part a byproduct of culture and system that placed too much pressure on players to win has been affirmed by the report.’
The ACA continued by saying that ‘new evidence that requires the sanctions to be reconsidered by CA’s board’ was found in the report.
‘Given there is now independent verification, the ACA executive calls for the lifting of the board-imposed penalties on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft,’ said Dyer.
‘The players have already lost time in the game, chances to play for Australia, endured public humiliation and faced massive financial penalties. They are contrite.’
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