Boo hoo hoo!! The full court press is underway!! Knighthoods for these poor, poor, poor players!!
From the sledging tough-guys of international cricket to the snivelling cry-babies of international cricket....new sponsor is Kleenex!!
Was it dastardly SA fans or dastardly English newspapers what done it? Australia imploded of their own accord....mental fragility exposed!!
The Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) will ask Cricket Australia to reconsider the sanctions given to Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.
Smith and Warner received 12-month bans while Bancroft received a nine-month ban over the ball-tampering incident in Cape Town.
The ACA's Greg Dyer said any decision on appealing against the sanctions would be a personal matter for each player.
Mr Dyer said the penalties were "disproportionate" and the contrition expressed by the players has been "so extraordinary". "Their distressed faces has sent a message across the globe as effective as any sanctions could be," he said. "I think Australia cried with Steve Smith last Thursday, I certainly did.
"We expect this contrition to be taken into account by ACA as any other process." He also said the players had been "rushed to a press conference minutes after leaving the field" and that the pressure they were under, while not an excuse, was "relevant".
Mr Dyer also addressed the questions around the "win-at-all-costs" culture within Australian cricket.
"Organisational culture comes from its leadership and it comes from the top. It cannot be grafted onto the bottom," he said.
