Smith, Warner, Bancroft not invited for Cricket Australia Awards

What's the story?

Things haven't been going well with Australian trio of Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft since they were caught in ball-tempering scandal last year. The former two were given a 12-month ban while as latter got away with nine-months suspension.

Cricket Australia has been quite strict to them for whatever 'inapt' they did. In latest, all of them are set to miss annual Cricket Australia Awards scheduled to take place on February 11 as they are not currently contracted by the CA.

The background

In March 2018, Australian men's cricket team faced a major setback as they were involved in a ball-tempering scandal. During the third Test in Cape Town against South Africa, Cameron Bancroft was caught by cameras while using sandpaper to rough the one side of ball.

Later, it was found that captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner were also part of this act. Consequentially, all three of them were banned by Cricket Australia.

The heart of the matter

The year-longs bans on Smith and Warner will end on March 28, while Bancroft was released recently. However, all of them are not contracted by CA, owing to which they will not be a part of the Cricket Australia Award function at Melbourne and hence would not be counted for votes.

"The eligibility rules for the Test, ODI and T20 International Players of the Year provide that where a player receives a suspension for a time period, rather than specific matches, the player is automatically disqualified from winning the award for any form of the game that the player played during the period of the suspension," a CA spokesman was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.

"In the case of Steve, David and Cameron, they will be ineligible to be awarded Test, ODI or T20 International Player of the Year at this year's Australian Cricket Awards."

What's next?

Australia had a forgettable last year in all the three formats. However, the Men-in-Yellow have started the ongoing ODI series against India on a winning note, having come out on top by 34 runs.

They have gained the 1-0 lead in three-match series and would be aiming to win the series to spare their blushes.