Ricky Ponting made a big statement over Steve Smith and David Warner's role in ball-tampering scandal

The former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes the lengthy bans given to former Australia captain Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft for their ball-tampering scandal have been a beneficial huge "shock" to world cricket.

As reported in NDTV website "As a group, we were talking about the stance Cricket Australia took and how harsh that stance might have seemed to ban players for 12 months and nine months respectively," Ponting told a press conference at Lord's on Tuesday.

"It's probably got the desired outcome, a kind of a shock to world cricket.

"We have seen ball-tampering incidents happen probably more consistently over the last five or six years and to my mind it's because little things have crept in that were allowed to get to a certain point and the tipping point was a pre-meditated act that the Australian players took part in South Africa.

Fair Pitch:

Australian former skipper Ricky Ponting suggested that pitches were fair to both bowler's and batsman. He gave an example of first Test between India and England. In this match England beat India by 31 runs at Edgbaston.

"If you batted well enough you could make runs and if you bowled well enough you could take wickets -- that's because the ball did something through the course of the game.

"I think the reason reverse-swing has become such a big issue in the past 10 years is that the wickets have got flatter and flatter and there's nothing in it for the bowlers and they have been trying to find a way to keep themselves in the contest.

"So let's look at having a fair playing surface for everybody and it might start looking after itself."

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