CAPTAIN Steve Smith and vice captain David Warner were banned for 12 months Wednesday after an investigation into the Australian cricket team’s cheating scandal identified Warner as the instigator of the ball tampering plan that unraveled in South Africa.

    Cricket Australia (CA) said Warner “instructed” young batsman Cameron Bancroft to carry out the tampering on the field with a piece of sandpaper — even showed Bancroft how to do it — then misled match officials and tried to cover up his role in the cheating.

    Smith, the top test batsman in the world and the star of Australian cricket, knew about the plan. But the captain failed “to take steps to seek to prevent the development and implementation of that plan,” Cricket Australia said as it released the findings of the investigation by its head of integrity that dragged in all the players, coaches and backroom staff for questioning.

    Smith and Warner were banned from playing for Australia, or any high-level cricket in Australia, for a year. Bancroft, maybe because he’s an impressionable newcomer in the team, received a nine-month ban.

    The 28-year-old Smith will not be allowed to captain Australia for two years and Warner will never be allowed to hold a leadership position in Australian cricket again. At 31, Warner may never play for Australia again.

    The fallout extended beyond Australia. The three players were also all banned for the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League, denying them places in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament where players are paid big money to appear.

    “These are significant penalties for professional players and the Cricket Australia board does not impose them lightly,” CA chairman David Peever said. “It is hoped that following a period of suspension, the players will be able to return to playing the game they love and eventually rebuild their careers.”

    All three were encouraged by national administrators to play low-level club cricket during their bans in an attempt to rebuild trust with the Australian public. In terms of Smith’s future captaincy prospects, CA said that “would be conditional on acceptance by fans and the public.”

    Underlining the extent of the damage to Australia’s reputation, the Cricket Australia bans were far more serious than punishments handed out by the International Cricket Council. The ICC banned Smith for one test, gave Bancroft disciplinary demerit points but no ban at all, and didn’t even charge Warner with any offense following the tampering episode in the third test last weekend.(SD-Agencies)