Steve Smith and David Warner given one-year bans as Cameron Bancroft gets nine-month suspension for cheating

Australia ban captain and vice-captain for 12 months after they masterminded Bancroft's ball-tampering scandal with both also suspended from the IPL

Australia captain Steve Smith has been given a one-year ban from international cricket along with vice-captain David Warner after the pair were deemed responsible for the ball-tampering scandal against South Africa last weekend.

Cameron Bancroft, the fielder who executed the plan to use sticky tape covered in dirt to manipulate the condition of the ball, has received a nine-month ban after the conclusion of a Cricket Australia investigation.

Smith left the team hotel on Wednesday in Johannesburg where he said that he has been banned for a year, and soon after the Indian Premier League [IPL] chairman Rajeev Shukla announced that both Smith and Warner have also been kicked out of this year's Twenty20 competition.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland announced on Tuesday that the trio had all been sent home from the tour of South Africa for their roles in last Saturday’s ball-tampering incident, in which Bancroft was caught trying to manipulate the condition of the ball with a piece of yellow sticky tape that had granules of dirt stuck to it.

Smith had already been banned by the International Cricket Council [ICC] for one Test after admitting that he had planned to cheat following a meeting with the “leadership group”, but Sutherland claimed in a Johannesburg press conference that the knowledge of the incident was between Smith, Warner and Bancroft only, and that none of the other senior players in the side nor coach Darren Lehmann were involved in the shameful incident.

The bans mean that Smith, Warner and Bancroft will miss the One-Day International series with England this summer, as well as the series against Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, with Australia also due to play ODI series’ in Pakistan and against South Africa on home soil before a four-Test home series against India. Smith and Warner will remain unavailable for the two Tests and three ODIs against Sri Lanka next January and the ODI tour of India, before finally missing the three Tests in Pakistan in March 2019.

But they will return in time to be considered for the 2019 Cricket World Cup that gets underway in the United Kingdom on 30 May, as well as the Ashes series that follows the tournament.

Cameron Bancroft was seen using tape to manipulate the ball (SuperSport)

Bancroft meanwhile will be available for selection again at the end of the year, meaning he could return for the start of the Sri Lanka series.

The announcement from Cricket Australia follows Warner’s decision to step down as captain of IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad, with Smith also resigning as captain of the Rajasthan Royals earlier in the week. With Cricket Australia set to confirm the sanctions at a press conference on Wednesday, the IPL has also confirmed that the pair will be banned from playing in this year’s competition.

“They [Cricket Australia] have banned two players and we are also barring these two players from this year’s IPL,” IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla told reporters on Wednesday.

“We wanted everything in our own hands. First, we waited for ICC’s decision, after that Cricket Australia and then we decided on the matter.

“We have decided to bar them from this season. The replacements will be made available to the two teams. We did not take any decision in haste, it was a well thought out decision.”

Smith and Warner have also been banned from the Indian Premier League (Getty)

Having become the highest-paid Australians in IPL history when they were retained by their respective sides in the 2018 auction for $AUD 2.4m apiece, they are now set to miss out on the lucrative contracts, on top of the extensive damage that the scandal has inflicted on their reputation.

What they will miss

June 2018 vs England (away): Five ODIs, one T20

June/July 2018 vs Zimbabwe (away): One Test, three ODIs

August/September 2018 vs Bangladesh (home): Two Tests, three ODIs

October 2018 vs Pakistan (away): Five ODIs, one T20

October/November vs South Africa (home): Five ODIs, three T20s

November/December/January 2018 vs India (home): Four Tests

January 2019 vs Sri Lanka (home): Two Tests, three ODIs (Smith and Warner only)

February 2019 vs New Zealand (home): TBC (Smith and Warner only)

February 2019 vs India (away): Five ODIs, two T20s (Smith and Warner only)

March 2019 vs Pakistan (away): Three Tests (Smith and Warner only)