Steve Smith and David Warner axed from the Aussie contract for the 2018-19 season

Australia’s former captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Waner has been under the fire ever since the ball-tampering saga which occurred in the third Test against South Africa. The two top Aussie cricketers along with opener Cameron Bancroft were banned from cricket for 1 year and 9 months respectively.

The trouble for the Aussie duo didn’t stop there as the BCCI banned the participation of the players from the cash-rich Indian Premier League following Cricket Australia’s ban. Now, both of the players find themselves out from the annual contract list released by Cricket Australia for the 2018-19 season. The 20-player list is based on the performance of the players in the past 12 months. The contracted players are set to receive a total of Aus$286,000 (US$222,000) as a payment for the period which includes the 50-over World Cup.

Smith, Warner, and Bancroft lose the board’s cricket contract

Australia opener Bancroft who was caught on the big screen using an object in order to help his bowlers get reverse swing too has lost his spot from the list. Australia skipper following the day’s play, in a press conference along with Bancroft, accepted the charges of trying the change the shape of the ball. Later after an investigation, the Australian board found the two along with vice-captain Warner guilty and were slapped with heavy sanctions and eventually a ban from international cricket.

While talking about the contract, the national selector Trevor Hohns said that the contract is announced keeping the limited-overs cricket in mind. Notably, the Australian team will play a number of white-ball matches along with the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales. ”For that reason, there has been a bit of a focus in this contracting period on white-ball cricket, as we look ahead to trying to win back-to-back World Cups,” said Hohns.

Current Australia Test skipper Tim Paine and Shaun Marsh made a return to the Aussie contract while Adam Zampa, pacemen Jackson Bird and James Pattinson, all-rounder Hilton Cartwright and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade have been dropped from the contact list. Interestingly, the new contract has a number of players who made the entry for the first time in the list which includes Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Andrew Tye Marcus Stoinis and wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey.

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