Steve Smith and David Warner got a one year ban for being involved in using sandpaper to tamper with the ball, yet Qaasim Adams gets banned for just six matches for pulling a gun on a team-mate. It’s disgusting!
I was the first to say that Steve Smith and David Warner should be banned after using sandpaper to tamper with the ball during the Newlands Test against South Africa – and I was happy to see them get banned for a year, along with Cam Bancroft getting banned for nine months.
After hearing that Qaasim Adams reportedly pulled a gun on his team mate, Givon Christian in November 2018, I was hoping to hear that he was banned for life, or at least a few years.
To me, there’s a MASSIVE difference between cheating during the game by improving the condition of the ball and pulling a deadly weapon and threatening the life of a fellow professional.
The ban given to Qaasim was a measly “12 playing days,” which actually only results in him losing out on three first-class matches and three List-A games. What an absolute farce and in my opinion, the Western Province Board has absolutely bottled it.
To top it off, WP are still allowing Adams to play for United Cricket Club whilst serving his suspension. This just adds to the joke of this so-called suspension. In fact, he is in the United Cricket Club’s side playing today, 12 January, against Kraaifontein Cricket Club.
The incident happened after day two of WP’s 3-Day Provincial Cup fixture against South Western Districts in November.
He proudly states in his Twitter bio that he’s a husband and a father. He’s also “Proudly South African”. What man with children would pull a gun on another man during a local cricket match and risk going to jail? What person, that is so proudly South African, would do something so idiotic that could affect the local SA cricket scene?
If Smith and Warner got banned for a year for ball-tampering, I think we should all be putting some serious pressure on Cricket South Africa to step in and serve Qaasim Adams with a far harsher ban than just six matches. In my opinion, he should be banned for far longer than the two Australians.
Over to you, Cricket South Africa – it’s your move.