Now we know how Starc gets all that swing.

You beat me to it Moz. 

What length if ban do you think he's looking at?

Will he take the fall alone? 

Haha and they didn't change the ball either. 

The umps saw the same pictures we did. Pretty conclusive, yet I still haven't seen the ball of boxes. 

Looks like it's in the bag for SA anyway though. 

Next we're gonna hear how peppermint-gate was just as bad. 

The following is the news report on the issue:-

"Australia's captain Steve Smith and rookie opener Cameron Bancroft have admitted to ball tampering in the third Test against South Africa at Newlands. 

In a shocking press conference after the day's play, the pair faced up to the Newlands media and came clean.

Bancroft confirmed that he had been charged by the ICC after the day's play, while Smith apologised and tried to convince everyone that this was the first time it had happened under his leadership.

"I saw an opportunity to potentially use some tape to get some granules from the rough patches on the wicket and try to change the ball condition," an emotional Bancroft said.

"It didn't work, and the umpires obviously didn't change the ball, but I guess once I was cited on the screens I panicked quite a lot and that resulted in me shoving it down my trousers."

Bancroft explained that the yellow tape was part of the Australian kit "connected to some padding" and that "the actual sticky stuff itself could be used to collect some stuff from the side of the pitch".

Smith, equally as rattled, then acknowledged that he was part of the decision to go ahead with the efforts to disrupt the ball.

"The leadership group knew about it," he said.

"We spoke about it at lunch. 

"I'm not proud of what happened. It's not within the spirit of the game and my integrity, the team's integrity, the leadership group's integrity has come into question and rightfully so.

"It's not on and it won't happen again, I can promise you that, under my leadership."

Smith would not, however, reveal exactly who had come up with the idea.

"I'm not naming names, but the leadership group talked about it and Bangers (Bancroft) was around at the time. We spoke about it and thought it was a possible way to get an advantage," he said.

Smith said the situation was "deeply regrettable", and denied that Darren Lehmann or any of the Australian coaching staff was behind the decision.

He claimed that this was the first time the Australians had resorted to ball tampering under his leadership.

"We saw this game as such an important game ... we have obviously seen the ball reversing quite a lot throughout this series and our ball just didn't look like it was going to," he said.

"It's such poor actions and deeply regrettable."

Smith said he understood that there would be doubts over whether or not his side had used these tactics earlier in the series, especially given Mitchell Starc's devastating spell of reverse swing bowling in Durban.

"You can ask questions as much as you like but I promise you this is the first time it has happened," he said.

"We'll move on from this and hopefully we'll learn something from this. I'm embarrassed and I know the boys in the shed are embarrassed as well. 

You may think so -  I think it was part of the Aussie strategy to win this series.

However, I think that some one is going to study the tape of the match in Durban to see if there was anything done to the ball prior to the falling of the Makram wicket.   The Aussies better hope that nothing similar is found.      

Haha

Just watched the press conference. My eyes are bleeding!

Smith came across as arrogant and insincere.

Doesn't look good. Interesting Sunday morning papers to wake up to. 

Crotchgate - A gate too far.

Don't know what happens after the incident but ball tampering is under Rule 41 in the Lords Book;

41.3  The match ball – changing its condition

41.3.1 The umpires shall make frequent and irregular inspections of the ball.  In addition, they shall immediately inspect the ball if they suspect anyone of attempting to change the condition of the ball, except as permitted in 41.3.2.

41.3.2 It is an offence for any player to take any action which changes the condition of the ball.

Except in carrying out his/her normal duties, a batsman is not allowed to wilfully damage the ball.  See also Law 5.5 (Damage to the ball).

A fielder may, however

41.3.2.1 polish the ball on his/her clothing provided that no artificial substance is used and that such polishing wastes no time.

41.3.2.2 remove mud from the ball under the supervision of an umpire.

41.3.2.3 dry a wet ball on a piece of cloth that has been approved by the umpires.

41.3.3 The umpires shall consider the condition of the ball to have been unfairly changed if any action by any player does not comply with the conditions in 41.3.2.

41.3.4 If the umpires consider that the condition of the ball has been unfairly changed by a member or members of either side, they shall ask the captain of the opposing side if he/she would like the ball to be replaced.  If necessary, in the case of the batting side, the batsmen at the wicket may deputise for their captain.

41.3.4.1 If a replacement ball is requested, the umpires shall select and bring into use immediately, a ball which shall have wear comparable to that of the previous ball immediately prior to the contravention.

41.3.4.2 Regardless of whether a replacement ball has been chosen to be used, the bowler’s end umpire shall

- award 5 Penalty runs to the opposing side.

- if appropriate, inform the batsmen at the wicket and the captain of the fielding side that the ball has been changed and the reason for their action.

- inform the captain of the batting side as soon as practicable of what has occurred.

The umpires together shall report the occurrence as soon as possible after the match to the Executive of the offending side and to any Governing Body responsible for the match, who shall take such action as is considered appropriate against the captain, any other individuals concerned and, if appropriate, the team.

41.3.5 If the umpires agree that in the match there has been any further instance by that team of unfairly changing the condition of the ball, they shall

41.3.5.1 repeat the procedure in 41.3.4.1 and 41.3.4.2.

If the further offence is committed by the fielding side, additionally the bowler’s end umpire shall

41.3.5.2 - direct the captain of the fielding side to suspend immediately from bowling the bowler who delivered the preceding ball; he/she shall not be allowed to bowl again in the match.

- inform the batsmen at the wicket and, as soon as practicable, the captain of the batting side of the reason for the action.

- if necessary, the over shall be completed by another bowler, who shall neither have bowled any part of the previous over, nor be allowed to bowl any part of the next over

There has been numerous incidents of ball tampering over the years by bowlers and fielders in SA., Australia, India, Pakistan and England....Michael Atherton 1994, Sachin Tendulkar 2001, Pakistan team 2006, Anderson and Broad 2010, Shahid Afridi 2010, Chris Broad and Peter Sniddle 2012,  Vernon Philander 2013 and Faf du Plessis 2016 but not involving a scratching device...but rubbing dirt, scratching against zip and even using saliva from licking a lollipop.

Usually it is the umpires responsibilit y to to check scuffed balls, and be suspicious if the ball swings too much as is in the case of a scuffed ball on one side and smooth on the other side.

But bringing a special instrument to do this is pushing it and smacks against the blue prints of cricket originated way back...ICC rulings still I believe use the original code of ethics and are even stricter because cricket is no longer a gentlemans game as it was way back and players do unscrupulous things that were unthinkable 50 years ago.

One wonders what will happen here and what example (precedent) must be made and set to prevent//discourage these dastardly things and I hope they reach a tough decision.

Hahahahaha!

Interesting cricket on this morning boys!

Twilight zone stuff.

Not like the present situation of the game is helping the Ozzies either.

Looks like it's Warner and Smith are the much vaunted "leadership group".

Eyes have not stopped bleeding.

Has Beeno seen all this?

His brain is gonna explode. Somebody needs to put him on stroke alert :)

The situation today was that the captaincy and vice-captaincy for the remainder of the test was removed from Smith and Warmer respectively.   Payne was the captain for today.

During the game today the commentators announced  that –

*    Smith  was fined 100% of his match fee and banned for 1 match; and

*    Bancroft was fined 75% of his match fee and fined 3 demerit points.

However, that is not the final decision on the issue involved and the ICC  as well as the Aussie Integrity  Officer  -  who flew from Australia this morning – is still investigating the issue and the situation may change for the worst for Smith and Warner in particular, as well as some of the other senior players  - the problem being that a scheme was concocted to cheat and the execution was assigned not to one of the senior players , but to a relative newbie.   

The Aussies  collapsed in a heap today and having a target of 430 runs to win, they were all out for 107.

Mozart

That senior players whom Smith did not mention but who were in discussion about the ball  tampering must still be identified and all of them will be on the plane back to Australia before the test started.   I suspect Warner, Starc and Hazelwood  were  involved.   

Handscome is already in SA - I am not sure whether Head and Finch is.   Be it as it may I think that the chances of a decent fourth test is quite small.       

Plumpie I have already had an argument with a pal of mine about the Smith generated Rabada incident and how pathetic it was of smith to try and get Rabada banned. The ball tampering incident proved that Smith and his cronies would do illegal stuff to win.

It' s sad these guys have messed up like this for as Warne said, this will stay with Smith for the rest of his life! 

BUT THE BIG QUESTION S WHEN WILL MCCHEAT OWN UP!!!!!!!!

Mike. The coach certainly knew about it. He was on that walkie-talkie in a flash.

I hope CSA are gonna follow through and take strong action against all the guilty parties.

If this type of thing is happening then there is certainly a poor culture in the team. The people behind this are probably a good bet for causing said poor team culture also.

Purge the lot and show the world that no player or group of players is bigger than the proud history of OZ cricket.

Pissing on that much history and pride is something that should stick with you for life.

That young Pakistani bowler got a four year ban for a spot fixing sting where he bowled 1 no-ball. I get that there's money involved so it's worse. 

Is it ALWAYS worse than ball tampering?

Probably yes and no. If whatever we saw yesterday was one isolated incident then it's probably not worse than spot fixing. 

If Australia have been doing this all series and the games have all been affected by it. And if they were also doing it during The Ashes, then I think it's much worse than spot fixing.

Will be interesting to see how CSA play this little flipper.