Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has slammed the International Cricket Council over the punishment handed out to Australian opener Cameron Bancroft and skipper Steve Smith after they admitted to tampering the cricket ball during the third test match between Australia and South Africa in Cape Town.
The rookie opener was caught on camera using a tape to change the condition of the cricket ball and then trying to hide the evidence.
The ICC handed a one-match ban to Smith and 100% match fee and Cameron has been fined 75% of his match fee and three demerit points.
The Indian off-spinner slammed the ICC, accusing the body of applying different standards to different teams.
“No ban for Bancroft with all the evidence whereas 6 of us were banned for excessive appealing in South Africa 2001 without any evidence and Remember Sydney 2008? Not found guilty and banned for 3 matches. Different people different rules,” he tweeted.
Harbhajan Singh, also known as Turbanator, referred to the incident when match referee Mike Denness banned six Indian cricketers, including Sachin Tendulkar and Captain Saurav Ganguly, during a test match between Indian and South Africa in November 2001.
Denness handed a suspended ban for one Test match to Harbhajan Singh, Shiv Sunder Das and Deep Dasgupta for ‘excessive appealing’. Virender Sehwag was banned for one Test match for the same charge. Sachin Tendulkar was handed a suspended one Test match ban over ball tampering charges and captain Saurav Ganguly got a suspended ban for one test match and two ODIs for failing to control his team.
The controversial decision was deemed unprecedented and had triggered a protest by the Indian team.
In his tweet, Harbhajan also brought up his run-in against Andrew Symonds during the 2008 Sydney Test between India and Australia, infamously known as Monkeygate, when Harbhajan Singh was handed a three-Test ban for allegedly racially vilifying Symonds.
Many former international crickets, including former English captain Michael Vaughan, also felt the ICC went soft on the Aussies.
Captain Steve Smith admitted that the team’s leadership group authorised premeditated cheating at Newlands, wanting to use sticky tape in an illegal attempt to change the condition of the ball.
Steve Smith and David Warner stood down as captain and vice-captain and took the field under Tim Paine ’s captaincy for the remainder of the match that the hosts won by inflicting a stunning collapse of 10-50 on the Australians on the fourth day.
