Ball-tampering: Australia’s Steve Smith, David Warner, Cameron Bancroft sent home

“On behalf of Cricket Australia, I want to apologise to the citizens of Australia, especially all the kids who idolise cricket, as well as to Cricket South Africa”, said Sutherland. “I share the anger and disappointment of fans and the broader community about these events”, the angry Cricket Australia chief told a packed media conference.

There is an addendum to the article in the Code of Conduct which says it is meant to be a “catch-all provision to cover all types of misconduct of a very serious nature that can not be adequately covered by offences set out elsewhere” in the document.

A number of Australian cricket players have asked for batsman David Warner to be removed from the team hotel to prevent an “incident” occurring between them, Fox Sports Australia is reporting.

“Ultimately, it is about whether Australians can feel proud of their national sporting teams”. It goes on to provide examples, which include any conduct that is considered “unfair play”. “Cape Town change room is a very small place!”, he tweeted shortly after Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland announced only three players knew of the plan.

The epitome of the hard-nosed Australian cricketer and one of their most successful Test captains, Steve Waugh said in a Facebook post yesterday that in choosing to tamper with the ball in the recently concluded third Test against South Africa, some in the current Australian setup have “failed our culture”.

The investigation will be completed within the next 24 hours and Sutherland said CA will be in a position to make an announcement in regard to sanctions.

You could win tickets to the fourth and final Test match between South Africa and Australia at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, starting on 30 March.

Just 32 months on, the 28-year-old has been sent home in disgrace from a tour of South Africa after masterminding a ball-tampering scandal seen as breaching the standards he promised to respect.

Sutherland further added that the Australian team, who are still to play one Test match at Johannesburg where they can save the series by winning the contest, will be led by Tim Paine.

That underlined Sutherland’s later comments that this Australia team’s entire reputation has been decimated. Urgency must be balanced with due process. “Focus on re-engaging with the cricket public to regain respect”, said CA CEO. We will have more to say about this review in the coming days, but it will be conducted by an expert panel who will report to the Cricket Australia Board.

This is Australian cricket. Turnbull added that authorities needed to crack down on sledging – verbal abuse involving players on both sides – if it wanted cricket to “once again (be) held up as a role model”.

It’s believed several players in the Australian team were not aware of the tampering plot until damning footage of Bancroft scrubbing the ball with yellow tape appeared on the big screen at the ground. “It was not in the laws of the game and not in the spirit of the game”.

“I said earlier that if they could get reverse swing in the 26th, 27th, 28th over, then they are doing something different from what everyone else does”.