The reputation of Australia's cricket team is in tatters after captain Steve Smith confessed to coming up with a plan with a senior player to cheat South Africa by tampering with the ball in the third Test in Cape Town.
Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, the fielder chosen to carry out the tampering, admitted to cheating after Bancroft was caught on television using a piece of sticky tape to rub dirt into the ball, then trying to hide the tape down his trousers when umpires suspected something was up.
An Australian radio station, Triple J, found some fun in the scandal by coming up with a hilarious rap on the state of Australian cricket (video above).
Steve Smith and David Warner have been banned for one year, ruling them out of the home series against India, while Cameron Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension as Cricket Australia (CA) came down heavily on the errant trio on Wednesday.
Smith, Warner and Bancroft were sent back home midway into the Test series against South Africa after admitting that they plotted to tamper with the ball using sandpaper in the third Test.
However, chief coach Darren Lehmann was surprisingly given a clean chit after CA concluded its preliminary investigations on Tuesday.
Tim Paine will captain Australia in the final Test match in Johannesburg with reinforcements in middle-order batsman Glenn Maxwell along with openers Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw scheduled to arrive on Thursday.
(With inputs from AP and PTI)
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