It's ridiculous to think that playing cricket is like war, says Hashim Amla

It’s been a long week for the Australian team who have been scrutinized, tried and criticised by cricket lovers and the media, in general, the world over. With skipper Steven Smith and vice-captain David Warner both handed one-year bans and youngster Cameron Bancroft given a 9-month ban, the heat surrounding the incident has considerably lessened in the past 24 hours. But it will be a long time before it will be forgotten by people who have grown to love the sport and only time will tell if the three players involved in the incident will ever be forgiven by fans.

However, keeping differences aside is key to paying respect to the game opined veteran South African batsman Hashim Amla. Amla, who was renowned for his calm and composed attitude has gone on record to say that it was important to focus on the sport itself and not the issues that have surrounded the game in recent times.

"It's not war. It's ridiculous to think that playing cricket is like war because, if you know the realities of war, you can't equate the two. Yes, it's a tough battle of skill, but you've got to have respect for each other," 

"I don't say much. I try to afford as much respect as possible. I don't try and demean anybody. For me, it is a skills-based sport and I try and support my team-mates as much as possible. What's happening in their camp, I don't want to comment too much. They have their issues to deal with," Amla said in an interview to ESPN.

South Africa were too close to the situation to comment, but Faf du Plessis would not be drawn into whether his team felt cheated in the immediate aftermath of the Newlands Test. Amla too refused to add fuel to the fire as he said that the whole situation reflected badly on the sport as a whole.

"We were surprised. That was it. There was so much that happened afterwards, but at that particular moment, we were like, okay... We know there are a lot of cameras around. For that to happen, it's a sad moment for international cricket," added Amla.

South Africa has also been involved in similar incidents in the past when players like skipper Faf Du Plessis and Vernon Philander caught ball-tampering. Amla sympathized with his Australian counterparts as he said that it was very important to move on from the incident.

"We know how hard cricket is, so when things like this go on we do feel sympathetic to a person who has made a mistake and paid a price for it,. There's no holier-than-thou attitude that anybody comes with because we know that everybody makes mistakes in their lives. You hope you learn from the mistakes and move on. We have sympathy for the guys who are under the pump now," the SA batsman said.