England’s limited-overs skipper, Eoin Morgan feels the reputation of cricket might be “battered” by the recent ball-tampering scandal at the Newlands in Cape Town.

However, he hopes the sanctions imposed on the three Australian players help the game move forward in the right direction. Cricket Australia handed 12-month suspension to Steven Smith and David Warner while the person who did the tampering, Cameron Bancroft received a nine-month ban.

Morgan further added the severity of the punishment had sent a firm message to players all across the glove that such tactics are against the spirit of the game and won’t be tolerated a single bit.

“In the last two weeks cricket has been battered and not for the right reasons,” he told reporters.

“I’d like to think that the balance changed when the sanctions were imposed because they were serious sanctions. You can see it and say it’s wrong but to then back it up with such a sanction says a huge amount.”

Smith and Bancroft have also been prevented from taking any leadership role in the Australian team for the next two years while Warner will never be able to hold a leadership position under CA.

The English skipper accepted the fact that there are some “grey areas” around the issue of the ball-tampering. Cricket Australia’s actions have made it clear that none of these methods to scruff the ball won’t get accepted.

“Throwing the ball in, one bounce, is fine… but if you throw to the keeper from long-on or long-off, the umpires will monitor how often the ball hits the playing surface and tell you they’ll change the ball if you do it again,” he added.