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A very sad day for Australian sport with Bancroft caught ball tampering at the request of the senior playing group, including captain Steven Smith.

I doubt the coaching staff were ignorant to the ploy, however that is what Smith claimed in his admission.

One point I will make - the seriousness of this issue is contextual to the game of cricket. Cricket is steeped in 'the spirit of the game' and strict protocols. This preservation of history and ethics, is intrinsic to the game itself.

Matty Johns joked on his show last night that one time the Knights players got the Knights ball boy to apply Vaseline to the footy whenever the opposing team found touch. This is virtually an identical situation - premeditated, a player has tampered with a ball to gain an on-field advantage... Yet Matty's story was met with rapturous applause and laughter rather than shock and disgust. I only raise this as a point of reference as I found it quite interesting.

By no means do I defend Smith and co. I felt sick in my stomach when I read the news articles...

This was blown out of proportion by all and sundry who went ridiculously crazy.

The opposition South African captain had been done twice for ball tampering and got away with a lettuce leaf slap.

Flintoff and Pieterson spilled the beans on the English too. Atherton with dirt in his pocket; Thorpe with mints etc.

Australians are pretty stupid and eat their own very quickly.

The 9 and 12 month bans were beyond ridiculous. Like lynching the players would somehow give CA some kind of moral high ground.

They should have appealed.

So without Smith and Warner, our blokes have capitulated to Pakistan in the current Test. After a decent first wicket stand, we lost 10 wickets for 60 runs.

"Batting collapse" and "Australian Cricket" are almost synonymous at this point.

A miracle to get a draw out of that Pakistan Test...