The Australian Sports Commission has extraordinarily called for Steve Smith and anyone else who had a hand in the ball tampering incident to stand down from the Australian men’s cricket team.
A statement was released this afternoon from ASC chair John Wylie, the ASC Board and CEO Kate Palmer.
“The ASC condemns cheating of any form in sport. The ASC expects and requires that Australian teams and athletes demonstrate unimpeachable integrity in representing our country,” they said.
“The Australian cricket team are iconic representatives of our country. The example they set matters a great deal to Australia and to the thousands of young Australians playing or enjoying the sport of cricket and who look up to the national team as role models.
“Given the admission by Australian captain Steve Smith, the ASC calls for him to be stood down immediately by Cricket Australia, along with any other members of the team leadership group or coaching staff who had prior awareness of, or involvement in, the plan to tamper with the ball.
“The can occur while Cricket Australia completes a full investigation.”
