Australia ball-tampering scandal: Graeme Smith slams ICC says, 'It doesn't look good, that's not Australia for me'
Australia ball-tampering scandal: Graeme Smith slams ICC says, 'It doesn't look good, that's not Australia for me'
The Australian cricket teams ball tampering scandal has turned all eyes on to them and are flooded with the outrages of the people. Recently, the former South African Captain Graeme Smith took a dig at the International Cricket Council saying they have missed showing leadership over the controversy.
Speaking to South Africa's Independent Media, Smith said: "I think the ICC missed an opportunity to really handle this properly and lead our game. They haven't done that. You have had two players, who have admitted guilt for cheating. I think that's huge."
Further Smith also said that the punishment of a one-match ban for the wrongdoing for the namesake, of Australian captain Steve Smith, and three demerit points for Cameron Bancroft, caught trying to tamper with the ball, is not justified.
"I can't remember ever seeing a foreign object (on the field) to change the ball. The pictures are damning. I mean it shouldn't be that Cricket Australia is setting the example. The ICC should be setting the example. I don't know what the right ban is, but it shouldn't be just one Test match," said Smith.
"Having captained before, every series you play, and every chance the ICC get to speak to you, they drum the spirit of the game down your neck. 'You are responsible, you are the stakeholders'.
"I can only assume since my retirement it is even more now. I think they should have taken a bit of time and made a decision that was a long-lasting standard so that no players will take that chance again."
The former South African cricketer further went on saying that ICC should review the Australian's match referees and the processes by which they made decisions of tampering the ball.
Graeme Smith said: "It doesn't look good" when the footage was first shown on Saturday. In the discussion with the former international captains and players on Sunday, Smith was critical of the way the Australian team had conducted themselves since before the tour.
He hinted a reported plan to push Kagiso Rabada over the demerit points limit for a ban, to "whingeing" about South African crowds, to Steve Smith's public anger about Rabada being reprieved after being banned.
"That's not Australia for me," Smith said that the had always played "hard but fair" in his encounters with them over the course of a 12-year international career.