Players’ union to push for early returns of Steve Smith, David Warner
AUSTRALIA’s players’ union is set to launch a fresh push to reduce the penalties of banned cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner.
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AUSTRALIA’s players’ union is set to launch a fresh push to reduce the penalties of banned cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner.
The Daily Telegraph understands the Australian Cricketers Association could make a submission to Cricket Australia’s board about the bans within the next 48 hours as the game braces for the handing down of its independent cultural review on Monday in Melbourne.
Should the cultural review confirm that senior figures in administration must also take responsibility for the events which led to the disgrace in Cape Town, then the ACA is set to double-down on its long-standing position that the sanctions handed down to Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft were disproportionately heavy-handed.
The union’s main point of contention is that Smith and Warner have copped an unprecedented level of punishment when, as of Sunday, not one senior Cricket Australia administrator had accepted any responsibility or been held accountable for the failings which led up to sandpapergate.
That could change on Monday with the highly-anticipated cultural review announcement, which the ACA is monitoring closely.
It’s understood some senior figures at CA are aware of the ACA’s plans of an official submission, but publicly the organisation is maintaining the position reinforced by Chairman David Peever earlier this month that the ball-tampering bans are set in stone and “will stand”.
Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts revealed he’s reached out and made contact with Smith, Warner and Cameron Bancroft since taking over from James Sutherland and is pleased with how the trio are progressing with their community engagement.
Roberts said attention must be placed on how the players can transition back into international cricket once their respective 12-month and in Bancroft’s case, nine month bans are over.
“I’ve had good discussions with all three and it’s pleasing to see that they’re all contributing to their respective communities and rebuilding in their own individual ways,” Roberts told The Daily Telegraph.
“There is a lot of water to pass under the bridge yet and we’d like to see all of them prepare themselves with a high performance mindset.
“It’s going to be challenging for the players to come back in to the elite levels of the game and so hopefully they can get back into that high performance mindset.
“There was a level of healing that they needed to do in the earlier parts of their suspensions and they’ve been pretty well supported in achieving that and I think in this juncture you start looking at what it would take for them to get themselves ready to compete at the highest level again.”
There is growing discontent across the game at the confusing inconsistency of Smith and Warner being permitted to play Twenty20 competitions in Pakistan and Bangladesh in January-February at the same time as the domestic Big Bash League is running, which they’re banned from.
Shane Warne and a host of ex-players have been vocal critics.
But it’s understood the ACA’s challenge may focus more on lobbying to reduce the domestic component of the bans rather than the suspensions from international cricket.
The ACA is adamant parading Smith and Warner in particular around in park cricket, where they’ve both been subjected to opposition and fan abuse in the past couple of weeks is achieving nothing – and that the game is missing a massive opportunity for the superstar duo to be enriching the Sheffield Shield and Big Bash.
Whispers of CA board members flirting with the idea of moderating the bans started back in July, but have been countered by the strong internal view that changing the sanctions after the event would be more damaging and legally impossible.
There is a view within CA that lessening Smith and Warner’s bans after Christmas would be unjust to Bancroft who would have been forced to serve the entirety of his nine-month banishment only to return to the field at the same time of his former captain and vice-captain who were outed for 12 months.
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Originally published as Players’ union to push for early returns of Steve Smith, David Warner
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