Dirty cheating Aussies

Stuff reports:

A deeply ashamed Australian captain Steve Smith has admitted his team deliberately conspired to cheat on the third day of the third test by having Cameron Bancroft use tape to illegally tamper with the ball.

They’re not ashamed, except at being caught. They’re cowards who didn’t think they could beat South Africa without cheating.

While Bancroft has been charged by match referee Andy Pycroft and faces a one-test suspension the reputation of Smith and the Australian team is in tatters.

Only one test? Should be at least a season.

Smith said he would not be resigning from the captaincy but owned up to devising the plan to try and alter the condition of the ball with other senior members of the team at lunch on Saturday (Sunday NZT)

If the Australian Cricket Board don’t sack Smith, then they condone the cheating.

On a day in which South Africa strengthened their hold on the third test – they lead by 294 runs with two days to play – controversy erupted when Bancroft was shown on television pull a small yellow item from his pocket and use it to work on the ball.

Soon after, when umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth were made aware of his actions he was seen to hide the object down the front of his underpants before walking over to them.

This makes it worse. Bad enough to cheat and be caught. But to then try and deceive and lie to the umpires should see Bancroft out of the game for an extended period.