The Australian duo of Steve Smith and David Warner has been receiving support and sympathy from the cricketing fraternity ever since they were banned for a year by Cricket Australia in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal.
Daniel Vettori, the former New Zealand skipper and Royal Challengers Bangalore coach, felt the issue has given the other teams an example on how to deal with such cases in the future. The former left-arm spinner agreed that the decision was severe on the Aussie duo but said people will have to accept the reality.
"Everyone has said everything that can be said about it. The key thing for world cricket is what's the next step, what's the next move, and how we deal with it in the future. It has obviously been a harsh, tough stance but that's reality and people have to deal with it. People have to know that those could be the punishments in the future as well," said Vettori.
There is growing talk about Australia considering to ban sledging after former coach Darren Lehmann felt they need to take a leaf out of New Zealand's style of play. The Kiwis had scrapped sledging in 2013, a decision that received criticism from New Zealand fans and was mocked by Australia. Over the years, New Zealand, first under Brendon McCullum and now Kane Williamson, have won hearts with their fair play.
"All teams evolve and they find out their right personality, and it took New Zealand teams a long time to work out what really worked for us. Luckily we had leaders like Brendon and now Kane...That really suits their style. It was, hopefully, natural to us but it took a long
time to learn."
So has the rest of world cricket understood that being nice actually helps? "We'll see," said Vettori with a laugh.