Disgraced Aussies captain Steve Smith, right, and batsman Cameron Bancroft front up to the media at Newlands on March 24. Photo / Getty Images
Disgraced Aussies captain Steve Smith, right, and batsman Cameron Bancroft front up to the media at Newlands on March 24. Photo / Getty Images
Air New Zealand has come out swinging, with a video taking the mickey out of Australian cricketer Steve Smith over last weekend's ball-tampering scandal.
A video posted on the airline's Facebook page this evening addressed the player and called him a "naughty boy" - in comparison to our team whichwere "playing rather nicely".
"We hear you're heading home for some time off," it said.
"This Friday, we're taking on the Poms again in Christchurch."
Air New Zealand pointed out the chillier temperatures in the South Island could provide Smith with a good way to escape the "heat" back home.
An invitation to David Warner and Cameron Bancroft was also extended in the video.
The video followed the announcement that the three players would return home from South Africa for their role in a cheating plot in the third test against South Africa on Saturday.
They would face "significant sanctions" in the next 24 hours, Australian cricket chief James Sutherland announced today.
Disgraced Aussies captain Steve Smith, right, and batsman Cameron Bancroft front up to the media at Newlands on March 24. Photo / Getty Images
Those three were the only players involved in the ball-tampering plot in the third test against South Africa on Saturday, Sutherland insisted, after receiving parts of a report from CA's integrity officer Iain Roy.
Bancroft was the man tasked with tampering with the ball with a piece of yellow adhesive tape and some dirt gathered from the pitch during the third day of the third test against South Africa in Cape Town.
Bancroft bungled it, however, and was caught on TV cameras doing the tampering and then trying to hide the piece of tape down the front of his trousers.
Smith and Bancroft confessed to their roles in the plot, but Warner was not named formally as also being part of the cheating until Tuesday.
Tim Paine was to remain in South Africa as captain.
Facebook users commenting on the post had mixed responses; one user commented calling the video "very funny, very naughty" while another said "wow wow wow shots fired!".
One person took the comment section under the video as an opportunity to slam the Airline for ditching regional flights.
"Very funny Air New Zealand ... not! How about re-instating Auckland to Paraparaumu flights."
Others took issue with the invitation Air New Zealand was extending - writing that the Aussies were "not welcome".
