Steve Smith and David Warner banned for a year for ball-tampering

Cameron Bancroft banned for nine months and all three sent home
• Cricket Australia: ‘Cheating probably an appropriate word’

 David Warner was revealed as the architect of Australia’s ball-tampering plot and left staring at the end of his international career following publication of the damning charge sheet against the three players involved.

Both Warner and Steve Smith have been hit with year-long suspensions, along with nine months for Cameron Bancroft, as Cricket Australia imposed draconian sanctions for “cheating” and “damaging” the sport during the in the third Test at Newlands.

While such hefty punishments were expected after Bancroft, in the full knowledge of his captain and vice-captain,the details of the deception went further than previously known.
In announcing the outcomes from their investigation, which included the Test captain Smith being barred from leadership roles for two years and Warner for the rest of his career, with 100 hours of community service for all three, Australia found the greatest level of misconduct to have come from the latter.
Amid a 1,000-word media release, it was concluded that the plan hatched during the lunch interval of the third day had been the brainchild of Warner, who directly instructed Bancroft to damage the ball using sandpaper.
That material – rather than sticky tape rolled in grit, as Bancroft previously claimed – pointed to a greater level of premeditation, with Warner also teaching his “junior” team-mate and opening partner how best to use it in an attempt to extract reverse swing from the ball.
Smith was charged with having full knowledge of this dressing-room tutorial but failing to act, along with lying to the umpires when they challenged Bancroft on the field.
The latter was accused of the same, having produced the cloth he uses for cleaning his sunglasses rather than the sandpaper he had hidden down the front of his trousers following a tip-off from the 12th man, Peter Handscomb.