Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, believes cricket’s reputation has been hurt by the ball-tampering scandal but hopes the public’s anger will have been assuaged by Australia’s hardline response.
Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft confirmed on Wednesday they will not be challenging their respective 12-month and nine-month bans for the incident in Cape Town, with all eyes now on whether David Warner, who was also banned for a year, follows suit.
Morgan, speaking at the launch of the ECB’s All Stars programme that is looking to build on the 37,000 children signed up to coaching sessions last summer, is acutely aware of the damage caused by such controversies.
“In the last two weeks cricket has been battered and not for the right reasons,” said Morgan, whose return to cricket with Middlesex has been delayed by four weeks owing to a broken thumb suffered during pre-season training.
Asked if ball tampering could put parents off cricket, he replied: “I’d like to think the balance changed when the sanctions were imposed. Cricket Australia have shown how serious the actual mistake was and how seriously they regard the values, principles, spirit and laws of the game.
“You can see it and say it’s wrong but to then back it up with such a sanction says a huge amount. This isn’t two of their worst players either, it’s two of their best – one [Smith] is possibly one of their greatest ever.”
Morgan said his shock at Australia’s malpractice came not from the use of sandpaper but the fact it was pre-planned; never before, he insisted, has he heard such talk in a cricket dressing room.
The 31-year-old has long since told his bowlers to throw the ball back to the umpires mid-over whenever it has struck the advertising boards at international grounds, to ensure any scuff marks are not taken as wrongdoing.
On player behaviour, which after the fractious South Africa-Australia series is under review by the International Cricket Council, he said: “You can talk about it but living and breathing it is a different thing; [it is about] recognising when it’s veering too far to the wrong way.”
