Cricket Australia (CA) is expected to reconsider the Australian Cricketers Association’s (ACA) demand of withdrawing the ball-tampering bans on Steve Smith and David Warner, said board CEO, Kevin Roberts.
In past few days, ACA has increased the pressure on CA to exempt Smith and Warner ever since an independent review claimed that the ‘culture’ nurtured by the board contributed to the ball-tampering scandal, which rocked the nation in March. The brutal review said the governing body was nurtured as “arrogant” and treated its premier players like commodities, allowing ‘alpha-male’ egos to develop a win-at-all-costs approach.
Talking to the reporter, Roberts said, “The ACA submission around the players’ sanctions was received by the board a few days ago. It was addressed to the board rather than to me or all management. So not for me to comment on a board matter other than to say that the board will be respecting that submission and giving it due consideration.”
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Smith and Warner have banned for 12 months while Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months, a punishment termed “harsh” by many former players. Ever since those players were banned, the Australian team has been struggling to win games. They recently lost the Test and T20 series to Pakistan in the UAE and currently trail the home ODI series against South Africa.
They were also blanked by England 5-0 in another ODI series. The relationship between CA and ACA have not been the best in recent times and repairing it is important, said Roberts.
Talking about the same, Roberts said, “I think what’s really important is that we at Cricket Australia need to embrace the players and we need to make sure that the players feel a really valued part of Cricket Australia. There’s no doubt that we need to face up to the review and the fact that it acknowledged that the organisation hasn’t been united enough across the playing and long-playing sides.”
After the ODI and one-off T20 against South Africa, Australia will host India for three T20s, four Tests and three ODIs starting 21 November.
