“It has been bizarre‚ crazy‚ [and] ridiculous. We joke about it‚ but it’s literally like a soap opera. There’s something happening every day‚” Du Plessis said. “But there is (sic) way too many things happening away from the game that’s taking the shine.”
Australian captain Steve Smith admitted on Saturday that he and the rest of what he called Australia’s “leadership group” roped in Cameron Bancroft into their plan to try and roughen the ball by rubbing it with sticking tape loaded with sand taken from the pitch.
Smith and Bancroft confessed after the latter was caught redhanded by television cameras before tea on day three of the third test at Newlands on Saturday.
Smith and vice-captain David Warner stepped down from their positions for the rest of the Newlands test on Sunday. The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Sunday banned Smith for the fourth test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg and fined his match fee. Bancroft has been given three demerit points and was fined 75% of his match fee.
Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Melbourne Age it seemed “completely beyond belief that the Australian cricket team had been involved in cheating”. “After all our cricketers are role models and cricket is synonymous with fair play. How can our team be engaged in cheating like this? It beggars belief.”
Former England spin bowler Graeme Swann told the BBC: “The abuse that they (the Australian team) are getting and their families are getting at the grounds - I’m afraid you do not get that in South Africa unless you’ve brought that upon yourself‚ which they undoubtedly have.”
Rest assured‚ where there is scandal there are jokes on social media. Here are some of the best tweets:
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