$1.9m dollars would have bought a lot of sandpaper!
The ICC punishments are a joke and surely now will have to be looked at. In the same series they tried to ban Rabada for 2 games for this until he lawyered up:
Others in the set-up have to have known.
Love how some former aussie players are getting worked up about Smiths 'treatment'. They've never been slow dishing it out but don't seem to like anything coming back at them.
Like all bullies...
I think this showed who was pulling the strings and it wasn't Smithy. Whilst I have no sympathy for him or Bancroft for that matter as they are old enough to know better and stand up against Warner or Lehmann, I am gutted for him as a cricketer. Full of admiration of his abilities and showed what a captain can do in the ashes.
Heard Gillespie talking about it on R5 and he basically said Smith can be a bit naive and easily let. It certainly wasn't Bancroft who instigated it so you're looking at Warner and / or Lehmann.
The difference here is they sat down and had a meeting planning to do it. Its deliberate pre-meditated cheating. From a side that has long made a lot of noise about the behaviour of other sides.
As usual there are degrees of cheating or ‘gaining an advantage’. The whole eating sweets, shining the ball are pushing limits but are deemed acceptable however if you have brought something out to rub on the ball it’s a deliberate premeditated attempt to gain that advantage
Still all goes back to weak selection practices for last summer's Tests & persistence with batsmen who can't build an innings.
Same old same old though isn’t it? Top order again 70% chance of poor innings with a small chance of a decent knock.
