NEW DELHI (AP) India's cricket authorities have barred Australian cricketers Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft from this season's IPL after they were suspended for ball tampering during a test series in South Africa.
Cricket Australia on Wednesday announced it had banned Smith and Warner for 12 months and Bancroft for nine months from all competition in Australia except club cricket. IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla says Indian officials subsequently extended the ban to their lucrative Twenty20 league.
The Press Trust of India quotes IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla as saying ''First, we waited for ICC's decision, after that Cricket Australia and then we decided on the matter,'' he said.
The International Cricket Council banned Smith for one test and fined Bancroft for their attempts to tamper with the ball during the third test against South Africa in Cape Town on the weekend. The pair confessed to be involved in a plan to change the condition of the ball, and Cricket Australia launched its own investigation following outrage at home and abroad.
Warner was later found to be the instigator of the plan. The combative opener has already lost a personal sponsor and had stood down as captain of the IPL's Sunrisers Hyderabad. Smith had already relinquished the captaincy of the IPL's Rajasthan Royals.
