Claims that the 12-month bans imposed upon Steve Smith and David Warner might be softened to allow them to participate in the second half of next summer’s JLT Sheffield Shield season have been strongly refuted by Cricket Australia. Smith and Warner were suspended for a year under CA’s Code of Conduct following an investigation into their involvement – along with Cameron Bancroft – into the ball-tampering incident that unfolded during the third Test against South Africa at Cape Town last March. Later, All three players accepted the charges laid against them.
Reports today that discussions had taken place to explore possible relaxing of the suspensions for Smith and Warner to allow them to play domestic cricket ahead of next year’s ICC World Cup and Ashes campaigns in the UK were dismissed by CA as “purely speculative”.
“At no stage have we, or are we considering lessening the current sanctions in place for respective players in relation to the incident in South Africa,” a CA spokesperson told cricket.com.au.
“The CA Code of Conduct does not allow for reversal or lessening of sanctions once players have fully accepted the charges.
“The current articles published are purely speculative.”
