I’ve heard a lot of that over the last couple of days and I’m happy to admit when I first read about the Aussies’ ball tampering ploy in South Africa I called for their heads too.

But, I’ve cooled down now and had a fair old think on it.

Let’s pump the brakes a bit, particularly on the life bans.

Smith and Warner have been stood down from their respective leadership roles and the ICC has given them one-match bans and fined them their entire match fee too, while Cameron Bancroft has been stripped of 75 per cent of his.

Darren Lehmann has reportedly stepped down as well, he’s jumped before he was pushed.

Cricket Australia is still conducting its own review as well, and its rumoured it will use its extra power to hand down far heavier sanctions, which we’ll find out when the results are revealed on Wednesday.

We don’t have all the facts yet, but based on what we’ve got so far, we need to remember there is some precedent in place here and I’d suggest that’s why the ICC handed down the sanctions it did.

Google ball tampering and you’re immediately hit with names like Mike Atherton, Faf Du Plessis, Sachin Tendulkar, Vernon Philander and Shahid Afridi, all of whom have been sanctioned for changing the condition of the ball in one way or another.

But, seemingly, none of those instances were as systematic or deliberate as the Australians’ ploy, so perhaps Smith and co. do deserve heftier punishments.

What they’ve done is idiotic, there’s no doubt about that and they’re incredibly naive to think they could get away with it. 

It’s shattered the traditional Australian ‘play hard but play fair’ mantra too, they’ve abused their position, disrespected the Baggy Green and their reputations are in tatters as well.

But life bans?

I think that’s a little bit too much, particularly when a lot of those calls are coming from long-time cricketers at all levels who know full well ball tampering is not a new concept in cricket.

There’s very, very few saints on a cricket field and former Tasmanian quick Brett Geeves said it best in a piece earlier this week – “cheating and cricket have always walked together, hand-in-hand”.

Ever edged one behind and been given not out, but not walked? I have.

Ever appealed for an LBW thinking you might bluff the umpire into making a wrong decision, when you know it’s not out? I have.

Am I a cheat? Probably, if that’s your definition.

Those examples aren’t comparable to what the Australians have done in South Africa and I’m certainly not condoning what they’ve done, nor am I saying the ‘everyone else does it so we should too’ argument flies.

What I’m saying here, and I am echoing Geeves’ mentality, is that this, trying all these little things that are against the rules, is a cultural problem with cricket in general and has been for a long, long time.

Particularly at that level cricketers, especially captains, live and die by their results so a ‘win at all costs’ mentality is basically engrained in them from a very, very young age.

So I’m not actually that surprised a couple of young guys folded under the pressure in their bid to do just that, win.

If it was a plan from the leadership group, then yes, an example needs to be made of Smith, Warner and the rest, Warner’s silence in particular has been deafening.

They’re clearly not the right men to lead the Australian team, so don’t let them.

Let them serve their bans, pay their fines and make it clear they’ll never lead their country again, that’s punishment enough. Banning them for life for one stupid mistake, simply, wouldn’t be fair, especially when you can almost guarantee they won’t be this idiotic again. And clarify which players were not involved, for the sake of their reputations.

My colleague Nick Guthrie at Dubbo’s Daily Liberal wrote a great piece earlier in the week on the ball tampering saga, and how the Dubbo grand final shone through the darkness of that.

Well, Rugby’s Jordan Moran in particular.

I didn’t have the pleasure of seeing his unbeaten 214 in that grand final, but that is something to behold.

What an effort. I can’t imagine being the Souths boys and having to go out and chase 400-plus on the second day of a grand final, that’s nuts.

They’ve made a fist of it, but let’s face it, they were never getting there.

Moran’s effort was something special, so too Taylor Beatty’s in Orange’s decider.

His side had Cavaliers on toast after skittling them for 138, Beatty also picking up two wickets, and then the Warriors were the ones being buttered after slumping to 4-28 in reply.

To make 80 not out on a wet deck under that kind of pressure is unbelievable and the mark of a class player.

If there’s any Western Zone selectors reading this, I think you've found the two first-picked blokes for next year’s Country Cricket NSW Championship, because Moran and Beatty are the two best cricketers in this region.

Bathurst’s decider too, five-wicket hauls, rain delays, stoic innings’.

In a game that finished a draw, you couldn’t ask for a more thrilling affair.

Congratulations to Rugby in Dubbo, Rugby in Bathurst and Orange City on your title wins.