Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were banned for their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal
Cricket Australia (CA) is set to meet this week to decide whether the bans on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft will be revoked or not.
According to Fairfax Media, CA is considering the plea put forward by the Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) for the punishment to be shortened.
Smith and Warner were handed one year bans while Bancroft was suspended for nine months for their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal at the Newlands earlier this year during the third Test versus South Africa.
As of now, the bans on Smith and Warner will be there till March 29, 2019 while Bancroft's ends on December 29 this year. However, if the bans are cut short immediately, the trio can take part in the home series against India, starting with the first T20I at the Gabba on Wednesday.
The reduction of the bans has been up for debate for some time now and it raged further after the Longstaff review, which clearly squared the blame for the incident on the 'win without counting costs' culture created by the board.
ACA released a 13-point reaction to the developments of the review and released a statement, asking CA to reconsider the bans.
"Given there is now independent verification that CA's system and culture were contributing factors, the ACA Executive calls for the lifting of the Board imposed penalties on Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft."
"My message to Cricket Australia is a simple one: these contrite men have been punished enough. Let these contrite men play," Dyer said.
"I add that the ACA will be relentless in pursuing this end," it added.
However, former cricketers like Mitchell Johnson and Ian Chappell are against the reduction.
"I thought 3 players were banned. So does that mean Cameron Bancroft's ban will be reduced to the same amount as Smith and Warner if it goes ahead? They all accepted their bans & didn't contest it so I think the bans should stay," Johnson tweeted.
"Do I think that some of the bans should have been reduced? No, I don't think they should, because of the things that came out of the long staff review was that they felt the attitude was to win and don't count the cost. If they would have brought Smith, Warner, and Bancroft back into the team against India, then they would say 'here we go again', don't count the cost let's just make sure we win," Chappell told ESPNcricinfo.
