Disgraced former Australia cricket captain Steve Smith has revealed he cried for four days after the ball-tampering scandal that cost him his reputation and the biggest job in Australian sport.
Smith, Cameron Bancroft and David Warner all received bans and Cricket Australia launched an in-depth review into the culture around its national team after Bancroft was caught on camera executing a ball-tampering plot by doctoring a Test match ball with sandpaper in a Test match against South Africa in Cape Town.
All three players have now begun to plan their respective returns to action, with Smith announcing recently that he was "really excited" to be playing in a Canadian T20 league as part of his comeback.
"Thanks to the Winnipeg Hawks for selecting me to play in what will be a really competitive tournament," he said.
But Smith has also opened up on the torturous days that followed his ban, that infamous teary press conference and how he survived it all.
"To be honest, I probably spent four days in tears," he said on a school visit in Sydney.
"I was really struggling mentally and I was really lucky that I had some close friends and family members that I could speak to at all hours of the day."
An emotional Smith had broken down uncontrollably, eventually being comforted by his father, Peter, at his press conference at Sydney Airport upon returning home from South Africa where he admitted that he had "made a serious error of judgement and I now understand the consequences".
And Smith revealed that, as on that day at Sydney Airport, his family and friends had been crucial to his recovery.
"The people that I had supporting me through that whole time made a huge difference to the head space I am in now," he said.
