Waugh says lenient punishment in past led to Cape Town ball-tampering fallout

Absence of stringent punishment for ball tampering encouraged players to cross the line, says former Australia captain Steve Waugh, who blames the authorities for the 'sandpaper gate' that led to suspension of Steve Smith and David Warner.

Smith and Warner were slapped with a one-year international ban while Cameron Bancroft was suspended for nine months by Cricket Australia in March this year for their role in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa.

Ball-tampering was classed as a level two offence under the ICC code of conduct when the Newlands incident unfolded, but it has since been elevated to a level three category, which carries a ban of up to six Tests or 12 ODIs.

"You know they push the boundaries a bit by throwing the ball into the rough on the ground, which they shouldn't do and then it's escalated from there. It's a shame how it got to the point that it did but I guess the authorities let that happen," Waugh told ESPNcricinfo at a Laureus event in Paris.

"There have been captains in the past who have been done for tampering with the ball and the penalties have been very lenient so there was no penalty for doing something wrong and it was always going to get to the case where it got out of control."
"They just didn't realise how big a mistake it was and what they'd actually done. So that, to me, just summed up that maybe they were out of touch with what the average person thinks."
"I know that Smith will be passionate, he's still only young, he loves cricket and he's got that drive to get back there. His biggest challenge will be to overcome people talking about it, because the rest of his life someone will probably mention it once a day. What happened?