Australia cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner have been barred from participating in the 2018 season of the Indian Premier League after they were banned by their country’s cricket board for 12 months.
Smith and Warner were made to step down as Australia’s captain and vice-captain respectively last week after the former admitted to the team’s leadership group devising a plan to tamper with the ball during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town last week.
Australia opener Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera rubbing the ball with a piece of yellow paper before hiding it in his trousers. The opener later admitted that he was trying to tamper with the ball in order to generate reverse swing faster.
The trio were asked to leave South Africa and head home by Cricket Australia, whose CEO James Sutherland said on Wednesday that only they knew about the plan to tamper with the ball. Sutherland also said that the trio can expect “significant” sanctions. Cricket Australia have not confirmed the length of the bans yet but media reports have stated that Smith and Warner got 12 months and Bancroft nine.
Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad had earlier already announced that Smith and Warner respectively had stepped down as their captains in the wake of the scandal. However, IPL governing council chairman Rajiv Shukla on Wednesday said that the two Australians will not be allowed to play at all this year and the franchises will be allowed to get replacements, reported ANI.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Committee of Administrators, in consultation with Shukla, Acting President CK Khanna, and Acting Secretary Amitabh Choudhary, decided to ban Smith and Warner “with immediate effect from participation in IPL 2018”, the league said in a press release.
“The BCCI hopes that the cricketers participating in the IPL hold the highest regard for the Spirit of Cricket and Code of Conduct for Players and Match Officials,” the release added.