DISGRACED Australian cricket captain Steve Smith was banned for one game as he and vice captain David Warner stepped down from their roles Sunday amid a cheating scandal that has outraged their country and threatens a far more damaging fallout for one of the game’s most exalted teams.

It even caused Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to ask: “How can our team be engaged in cheating like this?”

Smith, the No. 1 batsman in test cricket, and Warner stepped down from their leadership roles for the remainder of the third test in South Africa following the team’s confession to cheating by tampering with the ball with a piece of yellow adhesive tape and some dirt during play Saturday.

Smith and Warner would still play for the final two days of the test match at Newlands in Cape Town but have no leadership responsibilities, Cricket Australia said.

Their long-term futures hang in the balance.

Wicketkeeper Tim Paine stood in as captain as Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland promised an urgent and full investigation into one of the most embarrassing moments for a stalwart of test cricket.

Two senior CA officials — head of integrity Iain Roy and high-performance manager Pat Howard — were urgently dispatched to South Africa to lead the investigation. (SD-Agencies)