This is surely the darkest day in Cricket Australia. With Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft being guilty of ball-tampering, cricket lovers are slamming both the players for their actions.

Now, Australian pacer Moises Henriques has expressed his opinion over the issue on Twitter. He wrote, “In my uneducated opinion, I dare say there was never a senior players meeting to discuss cheating - Smith made that up to take the heat of a young Cameron Bancroft not realising the outrage that would follow.”

Moises further wrote, “Ps. Not saying no one was aware of Cameron doing it, just highly doubt there was a ‘senior players meeting’ to decide to cheat. I think it was the captain attempting to protect a young player. They had 10 mins of panic between end of play & press conference.”

A while ago, we got you the video of Cameron Bancroft putting sugar in his pocket during the Ashes in January. The video was shared on Twitter by a journalist.

Following ball-tampering scandal during the third day's play of South Africa vs Australia, Steve Smith has been handed a one-match suspension and fined 100 percent of his match fee by ICC. ICC Chief Executive David Richardson laid the charge against Smith under to Article 2.2.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel which prohibits to 'all types of conduct of a serious nature that is contrary to the spirit of the game’. Apart from Smith, Australia opener Cameron Bancroft has been fined 75 percent of his match fee and handed three demerit points for breaching Level 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct.

Smith accepted the charge and the proposed sanction of two suspension points which equates to a ban for the next Test match and which will see four demerit points added to his record.

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2018 03:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).