Steve Smith and David Warner banned for a year, to miss IPL 2018

David Warner and Steve Smith

Australian superstars Steve Smith and David Warner have been handed over one-year bans by Cricket Australia. The duo will also not be eligible to lead the national team until the next two years according to a sanction. Opener Cameron Bancroft, on the other hand, has been slapped with a ban of nine months. Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 too will be without the services of Warner and Smith as per the latest announcement.

“They (Cricket Australia) have banned two players and we are also barring these two players from this year’s IPL,” IPL Chairman Rajeev Shukla was quoted as saying.

“We have decided to bar them from this season. The replacements will be made available to the two teams. We did not take any decision in haste, it was a well thought out decision,” he further added.

The recent ball-tampering row in South Africa, involving Steve Smith, David Warner, and Camer Bancroft as of now, has caused a major stir in the cricketing world. While many experts found fault the players’ spirits and called them “cheats”, former Australian greats have expressed their concern for the interest of the game in the country and felt that Australian Cricket has hit an all-time low.

Many saw the decision coming given the backlash the Aussie players have been receiving over the past few days. Earlier, Cricket Australia announced that Steve Smith has been resigned from his captaincy duties and the tainted trio( Steve Smith, David Warner, Cameron Bancroft) will be sent back to Australia on Wednesday.

However, many former cricketers were amused by the board clearin head coach Darren Lehmann in the row. In fact, former captain Michael Clarke said Australian Cricket is in “deep s**t” until the public gets to know the truth.

Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, and Joe Burns have been named as the replacements for the remainder of the Test series with South Africa. Wicket-Keeper Tim Paine has been handed over the captaincy duties for the final test set to commence on 30 March.

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