Cricket’s infamous Sandpapergate, if it hasn’t already, is wearing thin.
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Agree with the punishments or not, David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft are all guilty as sin of ball tampering, cheating, playing unfairly, or whatever you want to call it.
Cricket Australia has made its decision and after a brief review, it's sticking with it.
The plagued organisation’s culture and governance issues have long been aired.
Faith has been lost, heads have rolled and judging by crowds this summer, there is a long way back.
So for Bancroft this week, on the eve of his expected cricket return for Perth Scorchers at Launceston’s UTAS Stadium on Sunday, to come out and point the finger at the long-believed architect Warner was simply stupid.
Smith’s tell-all interview was just as silly, indicating that CA hierarchy at the time was partly to blame.
Passing the buck is a childish way to worm out of a situation. They are all adults.
A list of former greats – including Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Shane Warne – rightly called for the pair to let sleeping dogs lie and for some ownership of the situation to be taken.
Others suggested that Bancroft’s comments would make it difficult for Warner to ever represent Australia again.
Well, what happened to giving blokes a second chance in this country?
With Australia’s World Cup defence and away Ashes series on the cards in 2019, it's hard to see the nation’s cricket team taking to the field without it’s best batsman and No.1 opener of the past decade.
It’s time for everyone to move on under the leadership of Tasmanian Tim Paine (Test), Victorian Aaron Finch (ODI) and new CA chief executive Kevin Roberts.
Sport should not be so complicated and it’s time for those at the highest level to set the standards for all levels of cricket.
The moral of this sad story since it broke in South Africa last March is: always play hard, but fair.