Alastair Cook: “The guys who are in the limelight have a responsibility to play cricket in the right way”

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England opener Alastair Cook has conceded that Australia captain Steve Smith and opener Cameron Bancroft’s admission that they tampered with the ball is “sad for cricket”.

Smith and Bancroft made the admission after the latter was caught taking a mysterious yellow paper-like item out of his pocket and putting it down his trousers during the third day of the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

While a ball tampering charge will be brought against Bancroft, Cricket Australia will launch their own investigation and chief executive James Sutherland confirmed that further action will be taken against those who were involved.

“It’s sad for cricket,” Cook told the BBC’s Test Match Special as quoted by the Daily Mail. “The guys who are in the limelight have a responsibility to play cricket in the right way.”

The former England captain pointed out that even though his side were skittled out for 58 in the first innings of their ongoing Test match against New Zealand in Auckland, they wouldn’t consider altering the condition of the ball in order to try and get themselves back into the game.

“There are days when things don’t go your way – and the first day here in Auckland was a prime example of that – but there is always a way to get back into the game,” Cook said. “We have to play by the rules.

“As captain, you are responsible for the other 10 guys and are the public figure for that. I’m sure Steve Smith is not in a very comfortable position – and in one sense you do feel for him, because I know what the pressure is like as captain of a country. You live and die by the sword.”