Finally, the ban period of David Warner and Steve Smith has ended. They also recovered well from their shoulder injuries, which made things look smooth for their return to the game. But, surprisingly, Australia didn’t involve them in the squad for the series against Pakistan. However, they made their way into their respective IPL teams.
Smith and Warner were banned for their roles in last year’s Cape Town ball-tampering scandal. Now, they are eligible for selection again on March 29. It means that they can be called up for the fourth ODI against Pakistan. But, that wasn’t the case, as Cricket Australia thought otherwise.
They got away with the murder – Curtly Ambrose
Meanwhile, Curtly Ambrose said that he believes Warner and Smith will never do something like that ever in their lives. The Windies great, who has 405 Test wickets to his name, added that he hopes both of them get to the Australian World Cup squad as they will make the team even stronger.
Further, he went on to add saying that the punishment was not strict for the duo. He believes that a couple of years punishment would have been apt for the malpractice done by Steven Smith and David Warner.
“You do not want to deprive professionals doing something that they love,” Ambrose said on an Australian TV show Bill and Boz. But when you break the law like that you should be punished and I honestly thought they got away with murder. I think a year was a little bit (lenient). I would have said two years — just to send a message because it was stupid really,” the former Windies seamer added.
They will never do it again:
And also, Ambrose quoted that he strongly believes Steven Smith and David Warner will never commit such a mistake in their life ever again. He also believes that the addition of the duo to the team will help them go into the tournament a bit stronger.
“I believe they will never do it again. They’ve served their one-year term and I just hope that of Australia support them and I hope that they go to the World Cup because they’ll make the team stronger. I was totally surprised because having played against great Australian teams before nothing like that has ever happened before,” the legend further stated.
However, they made a fine comeback to the game of cricket. David Warner is the leading run-scorer of the tournament so far while Steve Smith is delivering those much-needed knocks for the team.