The state of Cricket Australia following the ball tampering incident in South Africa

I don't often write about sports as for the most part I don't find writing about it exciting but occasionally an event will happen when that changes and it's necessary to blog about it.

By now you would have heard that Australian cricketers Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were enbroiled in a ball tampering incident during the third match of a test series against South Africa. The incident was caught on camera and Australians all over the country were outraged, as were New Zealanders, the English and basically anyone with an interest in cricket.

At the time of cheating, Australia had won one match, South Africa had won won match and were on track to win the third of a four test series.

The media and the public both called for captain Steve Smith and David Warner to be stood down at the very least, and they defiantly refused to stand down.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull weighed in on the debate saying it was a terrible example for young sports players and former NSW Premier Mike Baird said the same thing. Pressure mounted as the day wore on.

Former great cricketers such as Michael Clarke and Shane Warne tweeted their disappointment and disgust in the actions, with Clarke even saying he would be happy to come out of retirement if the right people asked him to. Of course that was met by mixed reactions with 52% polled on a Daily Telegraph website survey saying they would be happy with him returning as captain and 48% saying no.

Early in the evening, Cricket Australia released a statement saying that Steve Smith and David Warner had been stood down and Tim Paine would be acting captain for the rest of the test.

Is this enough though? Given they cheated there are so many questions that need to be asked:

• Have they cheated before?
• What made them cheat?
• What did they hope to achieve by cheating?

You would think that Steve Smith and David Warner would know better given they represent Australia and you would think that they would be happy playing legitimately rather than by cheating.

It isn't enough that they've been stood down for the rest of the match. If they're reinstated it sends a really bad message to the world that cheating is acceptable and that it doesn't have consequences.

Given Australia won the Cricket World Cup in 2015 under Michael Clarke's captaincy you would think that Australia would have enough faith in themselves that they could win the match by playing fairly. Tampering with the ball is not fair and it goes against our cricket history (excluding the underarm incident, which technically was legal according to international cricket standards).

Captain Steve Smith and co captain David Warner need to be sacked from the team permanently. They cheated and that means that they are not fit to represent Australia on the international stage. It's disappointing that they felt the need to cheat and that two crickets will be lost but if we're to maintain any credibility we can't be soft on their despicable actions.

With Michael Clarke saying that he would be willing to come out of retirement Cricket Australia has a chance to regain credibility. Some say it's a ridiculous idea but he only retired three years ago whereas Bobby Simpson had been in retirement for ten years before returning to the captaincy so there's no reason that it can't be done. He was also 41 at the time, and Michael Clarke is only 36. He is not the only Australian cricketer to come out of retirement. In 2003, Shane Warne was banned from cricket for take prohibited drugs and then returned in 2004, before retiring for good in 2006.

The coming days will be interesting to say the least but one thing is certain, Cricket Australia needs to make it extremely clear that cheating will not be tolerated otherwise the sport is in a lot of trouble. Cricket is Australia's national sport and we must show the world that we play it fairly, so even though it's sad we're losing two good players, we must take action for the future of the sport.