Steve Smith and the Ball Tampering Saga

The on-going Test Series between Australia and South Africa is a historic series and will be remembered for ages for two reasons- First for the fierce on-field battle for winning a test match and second for all the wrong doings that took a ugly side in this series including the off-field fight between David Warner and De Kock, Ban of Kagiso Rabada for one match for body contact with Steve Smith and now the most horrific incident of ball tampering by Australian Captain Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft.

On the third day of the third test match between these two teams, Cameron Bancroft was seen tampering the ball with white tape. When asked by the umpires of what he was hiding in his pocket, he replied it was his sunglass. However, several angles of the camera caught him red-handed and later after the play during the post-match conference- Cameron Bancroft and Steve Smith made the most disturbing revelation.

Steven Smith revealed that it was a plan of the management team during the lunch break to deliberately change the ball’s condition for reverse swing. However, he did not name the people who were involved in this ridiculous decision. But with this confession, a storm was raised in the social media and Steve Smith and the whole Australian team ere ridiculed by every cricket expert and billions of fans. While some people also demanded Steve Smith to be sacked from the captaincy and to be axed from the team. However, Smith in the press conference revealed that though, he is quietly shamed with the incident, he is not going to step down from the role of the captain.

With tension urging all around the cricket fraternity, ICC took charge of the vents by banning Steve Smith for one test match and fining him 100% match fee, while fining 75% of match fee to Cameron Bancroft. However, ACA (Australian Cricket Association) who were deeply shocked and saddened with the news sacked Steve Smith and David Warner as Captain and Vice Captain role in the ongoing test match and named Tim Paine as the captain. With Steve Smith not playing the fourth test match due to the ban, Tim Paine is going to lead the fourth test match as well.

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