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 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.

“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.”