One of India’s most successful skippers Sourav Ganguly has come in strong support of the distressed Australian cricketer Steve Smith, saying he sympathized with the former Australian skipper and believed that whatever happened in the Cape Town Test was not cheating.

During the launch of his autobiography book titled ‘A Century is Not Enough’, Sourav said, “I sympathize with Steve Smith; he is a fantastic player and hopefully, he will come back and keep scoring runs for Australia. Because I don’t think it’s cheating, actually I don’t believe it is cheating.”

Also read: Ganguly Feels That Ball-Tampering Case Will Haunt Steve Smith

Smith and David Warner have been suspended from playing cricket in Australia for a period of one year for their role in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Cameron Bancroft was handed a nine-month ban by Cricket Australia (CA). Talking to the reporters about the same, Ganguly said, “I just wish them (Smith, Warner, and Bancroft) luck and hope they come back and play well. It’s not right to call it cheating, and I wish them luck, and come back and (play) well.”

However, on the trio has decided not to challenges the sanctions imposed by CA. Of the trio, it was only Warner who was expected to challenge the sanctions. However, April 5, Thursday was the last day for the players to challenge the ban if they were willing to. 

Also read: Smith Will Not Challenge CA’s Sanctions

The three cricketers, Smith, Bancroft and Warner were handed the sanctions by CA following after they had accepted their mistake of tampering the cricket ball in the Cape Town Test against South Africa.

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and Mumbai Indians (MI) skipper Rohit Sharma were also present on the occasion. Ganguly and Tendulkar narrated several episodes of their careers and also spoke on the famous incident of Ganguly removing his T-shirt after the Natwest Trophy triumph at the Lord’s in 2002.