by Alessandro and Riccardo
During a test match in Cape Town, the Australian national cricket team, led by captain Steve Smith, cheated by modifying the ball’s conditions.
The plan was conceived by vice-captain David Warner and carried out by rookie national team player Cameron Bancroft. Captain Smith ignored the act of cheating, even though it was happening right under his nose.
To cheat, Bancroft used sandpaper to roughen up on one of the sides of the ball.
Various cameras recorded Bancroft hiding his piece of sandpaper
In the world of cricket, this is a major scandal because of the sport’s high ideals of sportsmanship and honour.
In Australia, cricket players are often seen as living legends, and this is why the choices made by the Australian players has sparked outrage across the world. As the team’s captain Steve Smith said in a press conference: “I’m not proud of what happened, you know, It’s not within the spirit of the game. My integrity, the team’s integrity, the leadership group’s integrity is now coming into to question.”
Australian Prime Minister Turnbull has blamed Smith and the ones who helped him, saying that it has been a scandal. A lecturer of sport studies has said that their nation fights against corruption in sport; however, their cricket captain has turned a blind eye to cheating by his players, and so their image has been stained.
Cricket Australia has made some investigations into the astonishing event and has concluded that cheating has to be entirely eradicated before cricket can move on.
The news of this action made many Australian cricket fans ashamed and disappointed.
Cricket Australia has decided to punish the players involved, banning each one for a different amount of time: the captain and the vice-captain have been banned for one entire year, while Bancroft, who is a more junior player, has received a 9 month ban.
Deliberately altering the surface of the ball by scratching and scuffing it on one side is illegal in cricket because it causes it to swing more unpredictably, making it harder for the batsmen to hit.