South A have been sent in and are 1-47.

South Africa is now 1-84.

The crowd looks a lot better at Cape Town.

its an awkward timezone for me starting at 1:30am in the morning

caught some this morning

looks like south africa might be below par. It might be a little two paced though since a lot of the dismissalls were screwing up attacking shots. If we stick our heads down and don't worry about run rate that shouldn't affect us

Embarrassing, the leadership group planning a way to cheat just because the match isn't going to well. Absolutely pathetic.

Agree totally, but what makes it worse is they then got the most inexperienced member of the team to do the dirty work. Much worse than if Smith had just done it himself.
Smith needs to be sacked from the captaincy, Warner from the vice captaincy and a player who was not involved, appointed captain for the rest of the match. 

I do feel sorry for Bancroft, he'll take the fall and probably never play for Australia again due to the orders from Smith and co.

His total incompetence in doing the deed and then trying to cover it up makes it highly likely he has not done it before. If he never plays for Australia again then surely Smith, Warner and Hazlewood, the leadership group, and maybe also Starc, who has been mentioned as being involved, but not definitively, should never play again as well. 

a life time ban for everyone involved including the captain has to be considered.

No aussie cricket team can ever do this again and the deterrant has to be severe enough to make that happen

Smith only got banned for one game by the ICC and Bancroft got three demerit points. That’s a light punishment but it’s within their guidelines at the moment.

CA will come under big pressure from broadcast partners and sponsors. The people paying the bills will not want to be associated with cheats.

It would not surprise me if those involved got lengthy bans from the test team. I also doubt that Smith and Warner will return to captaincy roles. Probably one year bans I’d say. There’s no way they should be playing cricket at home next summer after this.

The “leadership group” also needs to come under scrutiny. Clearly there is a toxic environment when an older group within the team can convince the younger player to do something so blatantly illegal. That smacks of bad power dynamics.

Lifetime ban should be considered
but I think 1 year is about right for everyone involved even indirectly

A lot has to go wrong in a culture before cheating is even considered. They need to find out how it came to this

Reading around the traps, it looks possible Smith will be suspended for a year and won't be able to play IPL. It will cost him a lot of money.

Warner is also in the firing line and may have ben suspended for the next Test.

Lyon, Starc and Hazlewood  have been reported as being furious they've been implicated by Smith and have protested their innocence.




Reading more, these acts have also occurred with ball tempering.

* Pakistan have been caught a few times.

* Early in Mike Atherton's career as England captain he was caught.

* Faf Du Plessis was caught ball tampering a few years ago. So was Vernon Philander. I didn't  know what penalties they suffered, but I'm surprised Faf is still SA captain?




* Rabada's reinstatement was bad for cricket after his barging incident and aggressive send offs.


I don't know about  others, but I'd rather see a weaker Aussie team lose, than the best players cheat trying to win. I found it hard to watch the cricket, particularly every time I saw Smith, Warner or Bancroft involved in any action.

There must be an issue of culture if nobody, who knew about it, in the Aussie camp stood up and said it was wrong.

Many former and current  players from overseas suggest that Lehmann must have known about it, and engineered it, or, if he didn't, he should have known about it. The latter implies ill discipline.

Players like Smith and Warner would be well served having to work in regular jobs for a living, or suffer unemployment.

A few months back, Tim Paine was a grade cricketer, and importantly has a sense of perspective - not entitlement. He doesn't live in an ivory tower. In addition, Lyon was originally a groundsperson, not a career cricketer who has been feted. 

It seems like  he will be treated more leniently as he didn't orchestrate and conceive the course of action.