Darren Lehmann has announced that he will step down as the Australia coach after the Fourth Test match against South Africa. The following announcement comes in the backdrop of the recent ball-tampering scandal that occurred during the Third test match at Newlands last week.

Former Australia captain Steve Smith and Vice-Captain David Warner were banned for 12 months by Cricket Australia. Opener Cameron Bancroft was also banned for a period of 9 months. To everybody’s surprise, Coach Darren Lehmann escaped narrowly in the whole ball-tampering fiasco that took place.

Where the duo of Smith and Warner were also banned to participate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, Darren Lehmann was asked to continue his role as the Head Coach of the Australian team.

The following announcement of Lehmann’s resignation comes to a shocker as only a day before the Cricket Australia (CA) CEO James Sutherland had apparently absolved him of all the charges. Earlier in the day, former Australian Captain Steve Smith suffered a major break down while addressing a press conference.

A day before, CA CEO Sutherland had dished out sanctions to all the three players after concluding an internal investigation. CA’s chief executive had revealed that Lehmann had no role in the ball-tampering episode and he would be continuing his job as the Coach of Australian national team.

The Australian team are currently playing a Test series in South Africa, of which the fourth match will begin from March 30, at Johannesburg. After which, Darren Lehmann will step down as team’s coach. Who will take the mantle to revive Australian Cricket is for time to tell; however, the team is in dire need of resurrection post the ball-tampering saga!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 29, 2018 05:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).