With the recent ball-tampering gate in South Africa rocking the cricketing world, doubts have raised over the participation of Australia’s Steve Smith and David Warner in IPL 2018. Steve Smith has been fined 100 percent of his match fee for the third test and also handed over a one-Test ban. While it has already been learned that Ajinkya Rahane has been named as the new captain of Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad mentor VVS Laxman said that the management would wait for Cricket Australia’s inquiry to be completed before taking deciding David Warner’s fate in the upcoming tournament.
“It’s very unfortunate what has happened in the Cape Town Test. As far as Sunrisers is concerned, it’s too early for us to comment. Because, it was, just which has happened the day before yesterday. We will wait for the decision of Cricket Australia,” Laxman was quoted as saying.
Responding to whether Surisers Hyderabad would take any stern action against their skipper, Laxman said that the information available currently is limited and more information is required to gain further insights. He also added that Warner has been an exceptional leader for the franchise and the team hasn’t yet thought along the lines taking any harsh action against him.
David Warner proved to be the leading run-scorer for Sunrisers Hyderabad in several seasons. The flamboyant batsman led the team from the front and also inspired them to lift their maiden title in 2016.
After facing severe backlash for their “unethical” way of playing the game, Steve Smith and David Warner were stood down as Australia’s captain and vice-captain respectively for the remainder of the third test in Cape Town. Opening batsman Cameron Bancroft, on the other hand, was fined 75% of his match fee for his involvement in the row.
Cricketing experts across the globe slammed the Australian players with some of them even tagging the cricketers as “cheats”.
