IPL ban have spared Steve Smith, David Warner the wrath of Indian public, says Ian Chappell

Following the conclusion of the Cricket Australia’s sanction process, the Indian Premier League governing council also banned the disgraced duo for this season of the IPL. The decision became evident given their home board had already banned them from all of their international and domestic cricket for a year and it would have been a huge dent on the BCCI’s image had the board decided to allow the Aussie duo to play in the IPL. While stating that the contract revoke may have affected their bank balance, Chappell added that it helped them survive Indian fans’ wrath.

“… While this is a severe hit to their bank balance, it may also be sparing them the wrath of the Indian public, coming as it would have done so close on the heels of the ball-tampering scandal. It’s also a welcome occurrence if it’s a sign that the BCCI is cracking down on bad behavior under its jurisdiction,” Chappell wrote in ‘ESPNcricinfo’.

“Its (BCCI) governance in recent years has been less than inspiring, and if this latest move represents a shift in attitude among cricket administrators, then the Cape Town calamity won’t have been a complete black hole.”

While cricket has always been branded as a “gentleman’s game”, it has actually been a myth as verbal duels have become a rich part of the cricketing lore now. Steve Waugh refined sledging, by dubbing it as "mental disintegration" and the Aussie way of playing cricket has always been like that ever since. Other teams adopted it quite beautifully and the in-your-face attitude has resulted in cricket degrading to a level, where the match is being branded as a “war”. And Chappell believes that the ICC must take some of the blame.

“CA and the ICC have to accept some of the blame for the fact that cricketing behaviour worldwide has plummeted to these depths. They have consistently failed to halt the slide in on-field behaviour that has increasingly undermined the game’s image. This is typical cricket administration – it takes a calamitous occurrence to make them react.”

“Cricket has been heading down a slippery slope for a while, to the point where the credibility of the game has been severely shaken. As always it’s the administrators who either stuff up or are slow to react, and eventually, the players suffer the consequences.

“In this case, the remorseful players, Smith, Warner and Bancroft, have suffered an immediate backlash, but it will be the embarrassment that follows the stigma of cheating like an ever-present shadow that will cause the lingering pain. Let’s hope that this instance of incredibly poor judgment proves to be a wake-up call for cricket overall and not just the three Australian players.”