Sandpaper Gate- Yes it is Shameful but isn’t the punishment too harsh?
If you look at the cricketers in recent years, Cricket Australia have always seemed to impose penalties far greater than any offending cricketer has suffered in the past from other countries.
In 2016, a footage emerged of Faf du Plessis using a mint to shine the ball after against Australia in Hobart. The ICC charged him with ball tampering. Du Plessis insisted on being innocent and even appealed, but the South African skipper had three demerit points on his record. He already had a history of ball tampering before. In 2013Du Plessis was caught rubbing the ball on the zipper of his pants pocket, and umpires awarded a five run penalty against the Proteas. Du Plessis later pleaded guilty to ball tampering and was fined 50 percent of his match fee.
In 2014, South African paceman Vernon Philander was caught by lenses scratching the ball in a test in Sri Lanka. He was fined 75 percent of his match fee.
In 2010, stand-in Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi was caught trying to bite and chew the seam of the ball in Perth. He was found guilty of ball tampering and banned from two Twenty20 International matches.
Now for a similar offence, Steve Smith (Australian Cricket Captain) and David Warmer (Australian Cricket Vice Captain) have been banned for 1 year of cricket. This seems very harsh for me. They both are very talented players and yes they did commit a grave mistake but a match fine or 2-3 matches ban was reasonable.
-PG