ICC suggest harsher punishment for ball-tampering

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked an internal panel to suggest harsher punishment for ball-tampering and other misbehaviour by players in its bid to establish a "culture of respect", chief executive Dave Richardson said on Thursday.

The game's image was sullied in Cape Town last month when Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft was caught on camera tampering with the ball during the third test of the ill-tempered series against South Africa.

Addressing a news conference after an ICC board meeting, Richardson said the punishments under its code of conduct for such misbehaviour were inadequate.

"We want to move towards stricter and heavier sanction for ball-tampering and all other offences that are indicative of a lack of respect for your opponent, for the game, for the umpire, for fans, for the media etc," he told reporters.

"We want penalties in place which act as proper deterrent. Fines are not proving to be the answer."

ICC's Cricket Committee, chaired by former India captain Anil Kumble, will review the current ICC code of conduct and recommend suitable punishments for rogue behaviour.

Borrowing football's red and yellow cards and handing out instant punishment would be considered, though Richardson was sceptical about the idea of using cards.

"Whether we introduce red or yellow cards, we'd leave it to the committee. I'm not convinced that it would as easy to implement as it is in other sports."

The quarterly ICC meeting acknowledged Twenty20 cricket as the vehicle to globalise the game, deciding to grant international status to all all its existing 104 members in a bid to popularize the game across the globe.

Richardson said it could prove a major step towards cricket's Olympic inclusion at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

"Assuming that we get all of cricket united in the desire to be part of the Olympics, we will have a very good chance of persuading the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that cricket can add value to Olympics.

"Already we've missed the boat for applying to the IOC through the front door, we can't go to Paris. We'll continue to talk with LA in due course, and hopefully by 2028 we will have cricket in the Olympics."

Adding to the move, the sport's governing body decided to grant T20 International status to .

The move will effectively mean that a T20 match between Argentina and Papua New Guinea will have international status from now on.

All member women’s teams will be awarded T20I status on July 1, 2018 whilst all member men’s teams will be awarded T20I status on January 1, 2019 following the cut-off point for qualification to the ICC World T20 2020.

Rankings for women and men will be introduced in October 2018 and May 2019.