'It comes down to the poor behaviour of the team. They look out of control.'
Wednesday 28 March 2018 09:53, UK
By cheating Australia have shown a total disregard for the game and the ethics of the game yet again.
The captain, Steve Smith, says it's not the way he wants his team to be seen but I'm afraid it's exactly the way the team is seen because of a culmination of events.
Australia seem totally out of control to me with no leadership of management - either captaincy or coach or chief executive - and it hasn't gone down well over there.
If you are a terrific cricket team you want to be remembered as that - wonderful players, wonderful people. Australia have got a long way to go.
The captain has said it was premeditated which means he and some of his players have thought about it, chatted about it - and I'm intrigued to find out more about this leadership group that he mentioned.
How many people are in it? Will it come out who they are? If Cricket Australia sack the captain, where does the leadership group sit in this?
Personally, in this instance, I think Smith should go but not purely for this incident. There are many issues here but primarily it comes down to the poor behaviour of the team. I'll say it again: they look out of control.
Smith says an incident like this hasn't happened before under his captaincy. We've just had an Ashes series in which they reverse-swung the ball brilliantly. How did that happen? There are so many questions.
We've heard them on so many occasions saying they haven't crossed the line - wherever that is. I wonder if they think they have now?
The pre-meditated nature of the whole affair does bother me and while we don't know a great deal about Cameron Bancroft, who has been charged with a Level 2 offence, he seems to keep turning up at press conferences for all the wrong reasons.
Ball-tampering has a stigma about it but when you look at the Code of Conduct it only carries a penalty of a Level 2 offence under the ICC's Code of Conduct - the highest being Level 4.
The umpires and ICC can only act as the laws are now; players know that if they get caught, they get caught and will have to hold your hands up to it.
If people think that it is a more important issue then the ICC need to move it up two notches to a Level 4 and then there would be very, very serious consequences.
Live coverage of the fourth day's play between South Africa and Australia gets underway at 8.30am on Sky Sports Cricket.
