Wednesday 4 April 2018 18:15, UK
The chairman of next month's Commonwealth Games in Australia, Peter Beattie, believes the Games can restore the country’s reputation following the ball- tampering scandal that has engulfed the cricket team.
Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft were all sent home in disgrace from Australia's tour of South Africa for their involvement in a plan to manipulate the ball with sticky tape during day three of the third Test in Cape Town.
Smith and Warner have been banned from all international and domestic cricket for 12 months, with Bancroft receiving a nine-month suspension.
The Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast begins next Wednesday and Beattie is hopeful the cricketers' cheating saga will have passed in time for the opening ceremony and promises a cheat-free event.
"The Australian cricketers have no doubt damaged our global reputation in terms of cheating," Beattie said.
"The Commonwealth Games will restore it because we have got the toughest drug testing regime possible.
"I'm not looking forward to talking to the South Africans or the English because they will give us heaps [of abuse] for it.
"We want to see less cricket, more Commonwealth Games. It was always going to be a big story. We all grew up loving the Australian cricket team.
"I hope it disappears as a major story by being dealt with properly then we can focus on the Games.
"Athletes won't do that and all of them will be very carefully monitored.
"There is no history of that happening in the Commonwealth Games because these are the friendly games. This is a cheat-free zone.
"We will restore Australia's reputation."
