Dawn Fraser says Australia’s cheating cricketers got off easy
SWIMMING great Dawn Fraser says she is “shocked” at cricket’s ball tampering scandal and says the players at the centre of the recent ball tampering scandal should have received harsher punishments.
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SWIMMING great Dawn Fraser says the Australian cricketers at the centre of the recent ball tampering scandal should have received harsher punishments.
The four-time Olympic and six-time Commonwealth gold medallist is shocked by the recent events in South Africa.
“I didn’t think for one moment that they would stoop so low,” the 80-year-old told News Corp.
“Unfortunately they cheated and it is a shame.”
David Warner and Steve Smith copped a 12 month suspension while Cameron Bancroft is out for nine months after the trio were found to have been involved in a ball tampering controversy involving the use of sandpaper to alter the state of the ball during the third test against South Africa.
“Well I got 10 years for marching in the Opening Ceremony and they got nine months and 12 months ban, it is not enough,” said Fraser, who was famously banned from competing after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in which she walked in the Opening Ceremony and also stole an Olympic flag from the front of Emperor Hirohito’s palace.
“And a lot of people think that. Cricket has been one of those sports in Australia that everyone loved watching and it is going to take a big turn down at the moment but they will get it back up.”
Fraser’s comments came as she attended an event celebrating women in sport at the Longines Records Club as part of the Commonwealth Games.
Regarded as one of our greatest athletes ever, Fraser described herself as a “larrikin”.
“I think women are being treated nicely in sport now, whereas before they were put behind the back door,” she said.
“They wanted the male influence and that was when the males were up there on board decisions, they were up there with high sponsorship, high money for their sport. Now, if you have a look at women’s cricket, now they are starting to have a look at them putting them up into the men’s salary range and I think that is going to apply to all sports.”
As for the Commonwealth Games, Fraser is heartened by the fact as many women are vying for medals as men.
“It has taken nearly 50 or so years to get to where we are today so I’d like to think we have grown up enough that maybe in two years time, or four years, we will get there,” she said.
Originally published as Dawn Fraser says Australia’s cheating cricketers got off easy
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