CAPE TOWN – Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland will announce the findings of their investigation into the ball-tampering scandal at 7pm on Tuesday night.
Sutherland flew into Johannesburg from Sydney earlier on Tuesday, and met up with CA’s head of integrity Iain Roy and high performance manager Pat Howard to discuss the matter and decide on further possible sanctions for captain Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft for their role in #SandpaperGate at Newlands on Saturday.
Reports from Australia and the UK have stated that coach Darren Lehmann and vice-captain David Warner are also in the firing line, and may even be stripped of their duties.
Smith was suspended by the International Cricket Council and received four demerit points and a fine of 100% of his match fee, and Bancroft three demerit points and a 75% fine for using yellow tape to gather dirt to rub on to the ball during day three of the third Test at Newlands, which the Proteas won by an emphatic 322 runs.
Smith said on Saturday night that the “leadership group” had come up with the idea to tamper with the ball, but that he was “not going to name names” of who else was involved in that discussion.
But it is assumed that Warner, in his capacity as the vice-captain, is part of the leadership group, although Smith was adamant that coach Lehmann was not aware of the plan to cheat.
Sutherland will hold a press conference in Sandton at 7pm on Tuesday evening, which SuperSport have confirmed will be broadcast live on SuperSport Blitz (channel 200) and SuperSport 2 (channel 202).
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